©   Of  CAllfORNIA   e 


3P 


£0 


yo 


•  *>  A«VWn  3H1   • 


O    tMt  UNIVERSITY    o 

ft 

i 


as 


6 


9  SANTA  BARBARA  • 


\ 


O    THE  UBRARY  Of    « 


•    VIN80*TO  *0    < 


O    Of  CAllfORNIA    e 


W 


eO 


5ft 


ro  Amannu  • 


o  yvtwn  vxnv$  e 


9 


5fi 


o    AlBfiANOaiU  o 


O   THt  IIBRARY  OT    e 


cs 


3g 


r> 


•    VINII(MI1V3  SO    « 


O   THE  IIBRARY  OT    o 

i 


03 


^£ 


r> 


•  viNBOino  <o  • 


O  V8VTOV9  VINVt  o 


1 

8 


o    AUSUiAINA  3H1   • 


O    OT  CAUfORNIA    4 


u 


£0 


Sfc 


•  «x>  Anvnn  mi.  « 


e   THE  IIBRARY  OT   o 


•    V1NJKMTO  JO   « 


a    THE  UNIVERSITY    o 


0 

I 

s 
5 

•  SANTA  BARBARA  • 


e   OT  CAllfORNIA    c 


u 


eft 


g& 


•  JO  MtVWn  3Hi  < 


o  or  CAiifORNiA  o 


o  to  umm  3hi  * 


/       \ 


O    THE  UNIVERSTIY    o 

rati 

•  SANTA  BARBARA  • 


O   THE  IIBRARY  OT    c 


* 


/ 


•    WOCUHO  JO    < 


\ 


o    Of  CAUFORN1A    » 


3< 


£0 


<JO 


O   IMC  UNIVERSITY    •  < 

ft 


•  *o  warn  am  • 


«£ 


6 


•  SANTA  SAMARA  • 


B 


0    <X  CALIFORNIA    e 


•  jo  A8vw»i  am  * 


e  vwsm  V1N  *  o 


o  AiiauAiNn  am  • 


UNIVERSITY    O 


B 


BARBARA  • 


O   THE  LIBRARY  Of  o 

2 


05 


$S 


n 


»    ViNDOJtnQ  JO    «, 


o  vavflavs  vinvs  o 


»  utss3AiNn  am  • 


O    THE  LIBRARY  OP   e 


03 


— Eh=r 


n 


O    VIN80 JIIO  JO    o 


o  the  university  o 


as 


B 


•  SANTA  BARBARA  « 


o    OF  CAIIFORNIA    o 


^j 

iVs  i 

*  jo  xnvaan  am  • 


«  the  university  o 

i 


as 


B 


/         \ 


•  SANTA  BARBARA  • 


< 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/bookofburiedtreaOOpainiala 


THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

KEW  YORK    •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm 

TORONTO 


lJHE  book  of 

BURIED  TREASURE 


BEING  A  TRUE  HISTORY  OF  THE  GOLD,  JEWELS, 

AND  PLATE  OF  PIRATES,  GALLEONS,  ETC., 

WHICH  ARE  SOUGHT  FOR  TO  THIS  DAY 


BY 

RALPH  D.    PAINE 

Author  of  "The  Ships  and  Sailors  of  Old  Salem,"  etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


U3eto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1922 


Copyright  1911 
By  METROPOLITAN  MAGAZINE  COMPANY 


Copyright  1911 
By  THE  MACM1LLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  September,  19H 


PBINTED   IN    THE    UNITED    STATES   OP    AMERICA 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  The  World-Wide  Hunt  for  Vanished  Riches      3 

II  Captain  Kidd  in  Fact  and  Fiction     ...     26 

III  Captain  Kidd,  His  Treasure 61 

IV  Captain  Kidd,  His  Trial  and  Death  ...     97 
V  The  Wondrous  Fortune  op  William  Phd?s  .  129 

VI  The  Bold  Sea  Rogue,  John  Quelch  .     .     .  159 

VII  The  Armada  Galleon  op  Tobermory  Bat     .  183 

VIII     The  Lost  Plate  Fleet  op  Vigo 221 

IX  The  Pirates'  Hoard  op  Trinidad  ....  245 

X  The  Lure  op  Cocos  Island  .     .     .     .     .     .  270 

XI  The  Mystery  of  the  Lutine  Frigate  .     .     .  288 

XII    The  Toilers  of  the  Thetis 309 

XIII  The  Quest  of  El  Dorado 335 

XIV  The  Wizardy    of  the  Dp/inestg  Rod   .     .     .  361 
XV  Sundry  Perates  and  THEm  Booty  ....  384 

XVI  Practical  Hints  for  Treasure  Seekers  .     .  420 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

H.  M.  S.  Lutine  leaving  Yarmouth  Roads,  Oct.  9,  1799, 

on  her  last  voyage Frontispiece 

FACING    PACK 

Treasure-seekers'  Camp  at  Cape  Vidal  on  African  Coast  ...       6 
Divers  searching  wreck  of  Treasure-ship  Dorothea,  Cape  Vidal, 

Africa •  .  6 

Captain  Kidd  burying  his  Bible 26 

Carousing  at  Old  Calabar  River 26 

The  Idle  Apprentice  goes  to  sea 44 

John  Gardiner's  sworn  statement  of  the  goods  and  treasure  left 

with  him  by  Kidd 68 

Governor   Bellomont's  endorsement  of  the  official  inventory  of 

Kidd's  treasure  found  on  Gardiner's  Island 68 

The  official  inventory  of  the  Kidd  treasure  found  on  Gardiner's 

Island 82 

A  memorandum  of  Captain  Kidd's  treasure  left  on  Gardiner's 

Island 85 

Statement  of  Edward  Davis,  who  sailed  home  with  Kidd,  concern- 
ing the  landing  of  the  treasure  and  goods 92 

The  French  pass  or  safe  conduct  paper  found  by  Kidd  in  the  ship 

Quedah  Merchant 104 

Kidd  hanging  in  chains 128 

"The  Pirates'  Stairs"  leading  to  the  site  of  Execution  Dock  at 

Wapping  where  Kidd  was  hanged 128 

Sir  William  Phips,  first  royal  governor  of  Massachusetts  .      .      .   133 
Map  of  Hispaniola  (Hayti  and  San  Domingo)  engraved  in  1723, 

showing  the  buccaneers  at  their  trade  of  hunting  wild  cattle  140 
Permit  issued  by  Sir  William  Phips  as  royal  governor  in  which 
he  uses  the  title  "Vice-Admiral"  which  involved  him  in  dis- 
astrous quarrels 149 

The  oldest  existing  print  of  Boston  harbor  as  it  appeared  in  the 
time  of  Sir  William  Phips,  showing  the  kind  of  ships  in 
which  he  sailed  to  find  his  treasure 156 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING    PAGE 

An  ancient  map  of  Jamaica  showing  the  haunts  of  the  pirates 

and  the  track  of  the  treasure  galleons 166 

The  town  and  hay  of  Tobermory,  Island  of  Mull 181 

Duart  Castle,  chief  stronghold  of  the  MacLeans 188 

Ardnamurchan  Castle,  seat  of  the  Maclans  and  the  MacDonalds  188 

Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada 196 

Diving  to  find  the  treasure  galleon  in  Tobermory  Bay  .      .    •.      .  215 
The  salvage  steamer  Breamer  equipped  with  suction  dredge  re- 
moving a  sandbank  from  the  supposed  location  of  the  Flor- 

encia  galleon  in  1909 215 

Scabbards,  flasks,  cannon  balls,  and  small  objects  recovered  from 

the  sunken  Armada  galleon 218 

Stone   cannon  balls   and   breech-block   of  a   breech-loading   gun 

fished  up  from  the  wreck  of  the  Florencia  galleon   .      .      .   218 
Sir  George  Rooke,  commanding  the  British  fleet  at  the  battle  of 

Vigo  Bay 225 

The  Royal  Sovereign,  one  of  Admiral  Sir  George  Rooke's  line-of- 

battle  ships,  engaged  at  Vigo  Bay 229 

Framework  of  an  "elevator"  devised  by  Pino  for  raising  the  gal- 
leons in  Vigo  Bay 236 

An  "elevator"  with  air  bags  inflated 236 

Cannon  of  the  treasure  galleons  recovered  by  Pino  from  the  bot- 
tom of  Vigo  Bay 240 

Hydroscope  invented  by  Pino  for  exploring  the  sea  bottom  and 

successfully  used  in  finding  the  galleons  of  Vigo  Bay  .      .  240 

Lima  Cathedral 246 

Treasure-seekers  digging  on  Cocos  Island     .      .     . 281 

Christian  Cruse,  the  hermit  treasure-seeker  of  Cocos  Island  .      .281 
Thetis  Cove  in  calm  weather,  showing  salvage  operations  .      .      .   328 
Thetis  Cove  during  the  storm  which  wrecked  the  salvage  equip- 
ment  328 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh 348 

Methods  of  manipulating  the  diving  rod  to  find  buried  treasure  364 
Gibbs  and  Wansley  burying  the  treasure      .......  400 

The  Portuguese  captain  cutting  away  the  bag  of  moidores  .      .  400 
Interview  between  Lafitte,  General  Andrew  Jackson,  and  Gov- 
ernor Claiborne  . 404 

The  death  of  Black  Beard  .     .     .     .     , 404 


THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 


Of  all  the  lives  I  ever  say, 

A  Pirate's  be  for  I. 
Hap  what  hap  may  he's  alius  gay 

An'  drinks  an'  bungs  his  eye. 
For  his  work  he's  never  loth: 

An'  a-pleasurin'  he'll  go; 
Tho'  certain  sure  to  be  popt  off, 

Yo,  ho,  with  the  rum  below! 

In  Bristowe  I  left  Poll  ashore, 

Well  stored  wi'  togs  an'  gold, 
An'  off  I  goes  to  sea  for  more, 

A-piratin'  so  bold. 
An'  wounded  in  the  arm  I  got, 

An'  then  a  pretty  blow; 
Corned  home  I  find  Poll's  flowed  away, 

Yo,  ho,  with  the  rum  below! 

An'  when  my  precious  leg  was  lopt, 

Just  for  a  bit  of  fun, 
I  picks  it  up,  on  t'other  hopt, 

An'  rammed  it  in  a  gun. 
"What's  that  for?"  cries  out  Salem  Dick; 

"What  for,  my  jumpin  beau? 
"Why,  to  give  the  lubbers  one  more  kick!" 

Yo,  ho,  with  the  rum  below ! 

I  'Hows  this  crazy  hull  o'  mine 

At  sea  has  had  its  share: 
Marooned  three  times  an'  wounded  nine 

An'  blowed  up  in  the  air. 
But  ere  to  Execution  Bay 

The  wind  these  bones  do  blow, 
I'll  drink  an'  fight  what's  left  away, 

Yo,  ho,  with  the  rum  below ! 

— An  Old  English  Ballad. 


THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED 
TREASURE 

CHAPTEE   I 

THE  WORLD-WIDE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES 

The  language  has  no  more  boldly  romantic  words 
than  pirate  and  galleon  and  the  dullest  imagination 
is  apt  to  be  kindled  by  any  plausible  dream  of  finding 
their  lost  treasures  hidden  on  lonely  beach  or  tropic 
key,  or  sunk  fathoms  deep  in  salt  water.  In  the 
preface  of  that  rare  and  exceedingly  diverting  vol- 
ume, "The  Pirates'  Own  Book,"  the  unnamed 
author  sums  up  the  matter  with  so  much  gusto  and 
with  so  gorgeously  appetizing  a  flavor  that  he  is 
worth  quoting  to  this  extent : 

"With  the  name  of  pirate  is  also  associated  ideas 
of  rich  plunder,  caskets  of  buried  jewels,  chests  of 
gold  ingots,  bags  of  outlandish  coins,  secreted  in 
lonely,  out  of  the  way  places,  or  buried  about  the  wild 
shores  of  rivers  and  unexplored  sea  coasts,  near 
rocks  and  trees  bearing  mysterious  marks  indicating 
where  the  treasure  was  hid.  And  as  it  is  his  invari- 
able practice  to  secrete  and  bury  his  booty,  and  from 
the  perilous  life  he  leads,  being  often  killed  or  cap- 
tured, he  can  never  revisit  the  spot  again,  therefore 
immense  sums  remain  buried  in  those  places  and  are 
irrevocably  lost.  Search  is  often  made  by  persons 
who  labor  in  anticipation  of  throwing  up  with  their 

3 


4  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  .TREASURE 

spade  and  pickaxe,  gold  bars,  diamond  crosses  spar- 
kling amongst  the  dirt,  bags  of  golden  doubloons  and 
chests  wedged  close  with  moidores,  ducats  and  pearls ; 
but  although  great  treasures  lie  hid  in  this  way,  it 
seldom  happens  that  any  is  recovered. ' ' * 

In  this  tamed,  prosaic  age  of  ours,  treasure-seek- 
ing might  seem  to  be  the  peculiar  province  of  fiction, 
but  the  fact  is  that  expeditions  are  fitting  out  every 
little  while,  and  mysterious  schooners  flitting  from 
many  ports,  lured  by  grimy,  tattered  charts  pre- 
sumed to  show  where  the  hoards  were  hidden,  or 
steering  their  courses  by  nothing  more  tangible  than 
legend  and  surmise.  As  the  Kidd  tradition  survives 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  so  on  divers  shores  of  other 
seas  persist  the  same  kind  of  wild  tales,  the  more  con- 
vincing of  which  are  strikingly  alike  in  that  the  lone 
survivor  of  the  red-handed  crew,  having  somehow 
escaped  the  hanging,  shooting,  or  drowning  that  he 
handsomely  merited,  preserved  a  chart  showing 
where  the  treasure  had  been  hid.  Unable  to  return  to 
the  place,  he  gave  the  parchment  to  some  friend  or 
shipmate,  this  dramatic  transfer  usually  happening 
as  a  death-bed  ceremony.  The  recipient,  after  dig- 
ging in  vain  and  heartily  damning  the  departed 
pirate  for  his  misleading  landmarks  and  bearings, 
handed  the  chart  down  to  the  next  generation. 

It  will  be  readily  perceived  that  this  is  the  stock 
motive  of  almost  all  buried  treasure  fiction,  the  trade- 

i  "The  Pirates'  Own  Book"  was  published  at  Portland,  Maine, 
1837,  and  largely  reprinted  from  Captain  Charles  Johnson's  "General 
History  of  the  Pyrates  of  the  New  Providence,"  etc.,  first  edition, 
London,  1724.  His  second  edition  of  two  volumes,  published  in 
1727,  contained  the  lives  of  Kidd  and  Blackbeard.  "The  Pirates' 
Own  Book,"  while  largely  indebted  to  Captain  Johnson's  work,  con- 
tains a  great  deal  of  material  concerning  other  noted  sea  rogues 
who  flourished  later  than  1727. 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES  5 

mark  of  a  certain  brand  of  adventure  story,  but  it  is 
really  more  entertaining  to  know  that  such  charts 
and  records  exist  and  are  made  use  of  by  the  expedi- 
tions of  the  present  day.  Opportunity  knocks  at 
the  door.  He  who  would  gamble  in  shares  of  such 
a  speculation  may  find  sun-burned,  tarry  gentlemen, 
from  Seattle  to  Singapore,  and  from  Capetown  to 
New  Zealand,  eager  to  whisper  curious  information 
of  charts  and  sailing  directions,  and  to  make  sail 
and  away. 

Some  of  them  are  still  seeking  booty  lost  on  Cocos 
Island  off  the  coast  of  Costa  Kica  where  a  dozen  ex- 
peditions have  f utilely  sweated  and  dug ;  others  have 
cast  anchor  in  harbors  of  Guam  and  the  Carolines; 
while  as  you  run  from  Aden  to  Vladivostock,  sailor- 
men  are  never  done  with  spinning  yarns  of  treasure 
buried  by  the  pirates  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the 
China  Sea.  Out  from  Callao  the  treasure  hunters 
fare  to  Clipperton  Island,  or  the  Gallapagos  group 
where  the  buccaneers  with  Dampier  and  Davis  used 
to  careen  their  ships,  and  from  Valparaiso  many  an 
expedition  has  found  its  way  to  Juan  Fernandez  and 
Magellan  Straits.  The  topsails  of  these  salty  argo- 
nauts have  been  sighted  in  recent  years  off  the  Sal- 
vages to  the  southward  of  Madeira  where  two  mil- 
lions of  Spanish  gold  were  buried  in  chests,  and  pick 
and  shovel  have  been  busy  on  rocky  Trinidad  in  the 
South  Atlantic  which  conceals  vast  stores  of  plate 
and  jewels  left  there  by  pirates  who  looted  the  gal- 
leons of  Lima. 

Near  Cape  Vidal,  on  the  coast  of  Zululand,  lies  the 
wreck  of  the  notorious  sailing  vessel  Dorothea,  in 
whose  hold  is  treasure  to  the  amount  of  two  million 
dollars  in  gold  bars  concealed  beneath  a  flooring  of 
cement.    It  was  believed  for  some  time  that  the  ill- 


6  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

fated  Dorothea  was  fleeing  with  the  fortune  of  Ooin 
Paul  Kruger  on  board  when  she  was  cast  ashore. 
The  evidence  goes  to  show,  however,  that  certain  of- 
ficials of  the  Transvaal  Government,  before  the  Boer 
War,  issued  permits  to  several  lawless  adventurers, 
allowing  them  to  engage  in  buying  stolen  gold  from 
the  mines.  This  illicit  traffic  flourished  largely,  and 
so  successful  was  this  particular  combination  that  a 
ship  was  bought,  the  Ernestine,  and  after  being  over- 
hauled and  renamed  the  Dorothea,  she  secretly 
shipped  the  treasure  on  board  in  Delagoa  Bay. 

It  was  only  the  other  day  that  a  party  of  restless 
young  Americans  sailed  in  the  old  racing  yacht  May- 
flower bound  out  to  seek  the  wreck  of  a  treasure  gal- 
leon on  the  coast  of  Jamaica.  Their  vessel  was  dis- 
masted and  abandoned  at  sea,  and  they  had  all  the 
adventure  they  yearned  for.  One  of  them,  Eoger 
Derby  of  Boston,  of  a  family  famed  for  its  deep-water 
mariners  in  the  olden  times,  ingenuously  confessed 
some  time  later,  and  here  you  have  the  spirit  of  the 
true  treasure-seeker : 

"I  am  afraid  that  there  is  no  information  access- 
ible in  documentary  or  printed  form  of  the  wreck 
that  we  investigated  a  year  ago.  Most  of  it  is  hear- 
say, and  when  we  went  down  there  on  a  second  trip 
after  losing  the  Mayflower,  we  found  little  to  prove 
that  a  galleon  had  been  lost,  barring  some  old  can- 
non, flint  rock  ballast,  and  square  iron  bolts.  We 
found  absolutely  no  gold." 

The  coast  of  Madagascar,  once  haunted  by  free- 
booters who  plundered  the  rich  East  Indiamen,  is 
still  ransacked  by  treasure  seekers,  and  American 
soldiers  in  the  Philippines  indefatigably  excavate 
the  landscape  of  Luzon  in  the  hope  of  finding  the 
hoard  of  Spanish  gold  buried  by  the  Chinese  man- 


Treasure-seekers  Camp  at   Cape  Vidal  on  African  coast. 


Divers  searching  wreck  of  Treasure  ship  Dorothea, 
Cape  Vidal,  Africa. 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  EICHES  7 

darin  Chan  Lu  Suey  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
Every  island  of  the  West  Indies  and  port  of  the 
Spanish  Main  abounds  in  legends  of  the  mighty  sea 
rogues  whose  hard  fate  it  was  to  be  laid  by  the  heels 
before  they  could  squander  the  gold  that  had  been 
won  with  cutlass,  boarding  pike  and  carronade. 

The  spirit  of  true  adventure  lives  in  the  soul  of  the 
treasure  hunter.  The  odds  may  be  a  thousand  to 
one  that  he  will  unearth  a  solitary  doubloon,  yet  he  is 
lured  to  undertake  the  most  prodigious  exertions  by 
the  keen  zest  of  the  game  itself.  The  English  nov- 
elist, George  E.  Sims,  once  expressed  this  state  of 
mind  very  exactly.  "  Respectable  citizens,  tired  of 
the  melancholy  sameness  of  a  drab  existence,  cannot 
take  to  crape  masks,  dark  lanterns,  silent  matches, 
and  rope  ladders,  but  they  can  all  be  off  to  a  pirate 
island  and  search  for  treasure  and  return  laden  or 
empty  without  a  stain  upon  their  characters.  I  know 
a  fine  old  pirate  who  sings  a  good  song  and  has  treas- 
ure islands  at  his  fingers '  ends.  I  think  I  can  get  to- 
gether a  band  of  adventurers,  middle-aged  men  of 
established  reputation  in  whom  the  public  would 
have  confidence,  who  would  be  only  too  glad  to  enjoy 
a  year's  romance." 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  who  dearly  loved  a  pirate 
and  wrote  the  finest  treasure  story  of  them  all  around 
a  proper  chart  of  his  own  devising,  took  Henry  James 
to  task  for  confessing  that  although  he  had  been  a 
child  he  had  never  been  on  a  quest  for  buried  treas- 
ure. ' '  Here  is  indeed  a  willful  paradox, ' '  exclaimed 
the  author  of  "Treasure  Island,"  "for  if  he  has 
never  "been  on  a  quest  for  buried  treasure,  it  can  be 
demonstrated  that  he  has  never  been  a  child.  There 
never  was  a  child  (unless  Master  James),  but  has 
hunted  gold,  and  been  a  pirate,  and  a  military  com- 


8  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

mander,  and  a  bandit  of  the  mountains;  but  has 
fought,  and  suffered  shipwreck  and  prison,  and  im- 
brued its  little  hands  in  gore,  and  gallantly  retrieved 
the  lost  battle,  and  triumphantly  protected  innocence 
and  beauty." 

Mark  Twain  also  indicated  the  singular  isolation 
of  Henry  James  by  expressing  precisely  the  same 
opinion  in  his  immortal  chronicle  of  the  adventures 
of  Tom  Sawyer.  "There  comes  a  time  in  every 
rightly  constructed  boy's  life  when  he  has  a  raging 
desire  to  go  somewhere  and  dig  for  buried  treasure. ' ' 
And  what  an  entrancing  career  Tom  had  planned  for 
himself  in  an  earlier  chapter!  "At  the  zenith  of 
his  fame,  how  he  would  suddenly  appear  at  the  old 
village  and  stalk  into  church,  brown  and  weather- 
beaten,  in  his  black  velvet  doublet  and  trunks,  his 
great  jack-boots,  his  crimson  sash,  his  belt  bristling 
with  horse-pistols,  his  crime-rusted  cutlass  at  his 
side,  his  slouch  hat  with  waving  plumes,  his  black 
flag  unfurled,  with  the  skull  and  cross-bones  on  it, 
and  hear  with  swelling  ecstasy  the  whisperings,  'It's 
Tom  Sawyer  the  Pirate !— The  Black  Avenger  of  the 
Spanish  Main. '  ' ' 

When  Tom  and  Huck  Finn  went  treasure  seeking 
they  observed  the  time-honored  rules  of  the  game, 
as  the  following  dialogue  will  recall  to  mind : 

"Where '11  we  dig?"  said  Huck. 

"Oh,  most  anywhere." 

"Why,  is  it  hid  all  around?" 

1 '  No,  indeed  it  ain  't.  It 's  hid  in  mighty  particular 
places,  Huck,  sometimes  on  islands,  sometimes  in 
rotten  chests  under  the  limb  of  an  old  dead  tree,  just 
where  the  shadow  falls  at  midnight ;  but  mostly  under 
the  floor  in  ha'nted  houses." 

"Who  hides  it?" 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES  9 

"Why,  robbers,  of  course.  Who'd  you  reckon, 
Sunday-school  sup'rintendents?" 

"I  don't  know.  If  'twas  mine  I  wouldn't  hide  it; 
I'd  spend  it  and  have  a  good  time." 

"So  would  I.  But  robbers  don't  do  that  way. 
They  always  hide  it  and  leave  it  there. ' ' 

"Don't  they  come  after  it  any  more?" 

"No,  they  think  they  will,  but  they  generally  for- 
get the  marks  or  else  they  die.  Anyway,  it  lays 
there  a  long  time  and  gets  rusty ;  and  by  and  by  some- 
body finds  an  old  yellow  paper  that  tells  how  to  find 
the  marks, — a  paper  that's  got  to  be  ciphered  over 
about  a  week  because  it's  mostly  signs  and  hy'ro- 
glyphics. ' ' 

Hunting  lost  treasure  is  not  work  but  a  fascinating 
kind  of  play  that  belongs  to  the  world  of  make  be- 
lieve. It  appeals  to  that  strain  of  boyishness  which 
survives  in  the  average  man  even  though  his  pow  be 
frosted,  his  reputation  starched  and  conservative. 
It  is,  after  all,  an  inherited  taste  handed  down  from 
the  golden  age  of  fairies.  The  folk-lore  of  almost 
every  race  is  rich  in  buried  treasure  stories.  The 
pirate  with  his  stout  sea  chest  hidden  above  high- 
water  mark  is  lineally  descended  from  the  enchant- 
ing characters  who  lived  in  the  shadow  land  of  myth 
and  fable.  The  hoard  of  Captain  Kidd,  although  he 
was  turned  off  at  Execution  Dock  only  two  hundred 
years  ago,  has  become  as  legendary  as  the  dream  of 
the  pot  of  gold  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow. 

Many  a  hard-headed  farmer  and  fisherman  of  the 
New  England  coast  believes  that  it  is  rash  business 
to  go  digging  for  Kidd's  treasure  unless  one  care- 
fully performs  certain  incantations  designed  to  pla- 
cate the  ghostly  guardian  who  aforetime  sailed  with 
Kidd  and  was  slain  by  him  after  the  hole  was  dug 


10  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

lest  the  secret  might  thus  be  revealed.  And  it  is  of 
course  well  known  that  if  a  word  is  spoken  after 
the  pick  has  clinked  against  the  iron-bound  chest  or 
metal  pot,  the  devil  flies  away  with  the  treasure, 
leaving  behind  him  only  panic  and  a  strong  smell 
of  brimstone. 

Such  curious  superstitions  as  these,  strongly  sur- 
viving wherever  pirate  gold  is  sought,  have  been  the 
common  property  of  buried-treasure  stories  in  all 
ages.  The  country-folk  of  Japan  will  tell  you  that 
if  a  pot  of  money  is  found  a  rice  cake  must  be  left 
in  place  of  every  coin  taken  away,  and  imitation 
money  burned  as  an  offering  to  any  spirit  that  may  be 
offended  by  the  removal  of  the  hoard.  The  negroes 
of  the  West  Indies  explain  that  the  buried  wealth  of 
the  buccaneers  is  seldom  found  because  the  spirits 
that  watch  over  it  have  a  habit  of  whisking  the  treas- 
ure away  to  parts  unknown  as  soon  as  ever  the  hid- 
ing-place is  disturbed.  Among  the  Bedouins  is  cur- 
rent the  legend  that  immense  treasures  were  con- 
cealed by  Solomon  beneath  the  foundations  of  Pal- 
myra and  that  sapient  monarch  took  the  precaution 
of  enlisting  an  army  of  jinns  to  guard  the  gold  for- 
ever more. 

In  parts  of  Bohemia  the  peasants  are  convinced 
that  a  blue  light  hovers  above  the  location  of  buried 
treasure,  invisible  to  all  mortal  eyes  save  those  of  the 
person  destined  to  find  it.  In  many  corners  of  the 
world  there  has  long  existed  the  belief  in  the  occult 
efficacy  of  a  black  cock  or  a  black  cat  in  the  equipment 
of  a  treasure  quest  which  is  also  influenced  by  the 
particular  phases  of  the  moon.  A  letter  written 
from  Bombay  as  long  ago  as  1707,  contained  a  quaint 
account  of  an  incident  inspired  by  this  particular 
superstition. 


THE  HUNT  FOE  VANISHED  RICHES         11 

"Upon  a  dream  of  a  Negro  girl  of  Mahim  that 
there  was  a  Mine  of  Treasure,  who  being  overheard 
relating  it,  Domo,  Alvares,  and  some  others  went  to 
the  place  and  sacrificed  a  Cock  and  dugg  the  ground 
but  found  nothing.  They  go  to  Bundarra  at  Salsett, 
where  disagreeing,  the  Government  there  takes  no- 
tice of  the  same,  and  one  of  them,  an  inhabitant  of 
Bombay,  is  sent  to  the  Inquisition  at  Goa,  which  pro- 
ceedings will  discourage  the  Inhabitants.  Where- 
fore the  General  is  desired  to  issue  a  proclamation 
to  release  him,  and  if  not  restored  in  twenty  days,  no 
Koman  Catholick  Worship  to  be  allowed  on  the 
Island." 

A  more  recent  chronicler,  writing  in  The  Ceylon 
Times,  had  this  to  say : 

1  'It  is  the  belief  of  all  Orientals  that  hidden  treas- 
ures are  under  the  guardianship  of  supernatural 
beings.  The  Cingalese  divide  the  charge  between  the 
demons  and  the  cobra  da  capello  (guardian  of  the 
king's  ankus  in  Kipling's  story).  Various  charms 
are  resorted  to  by  those  who  wish  to  gain  the  treas- 
ure because  the  demons  require  a  sacrifice.  The 
blood  of  a  human  being  is  the  most  important, 
but  so  far  as  is  known,  the  Cappowas  have  hitherto 
confined  themselves  to  the  sacrifice  of  a  white  cock, 
combining  its  blood  with  their  own  drawn  from  the 
hand  or  foot." 

No  more  fantastic  than  this  are  the  legends  of 
which  the  British  Isles  yield  a  plentiful  harvest. 
Thomas  of  Walsingham  tells  the  tale  of  a  Saracen 
physician  who  betook  himself  to  Earl  Warren  of  the 
fourteenth  century  to  ask  courteous  permission  that 
he  might  slay  a  dragon,  or  "loathly  worm"  which 
had  its  den  at  Bromfield  near  Ludlow  and  had 
wrought  sad  ravages  on  the  Earl's  lands.    The  Sar- 


12     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

acen  overcame  the  monster,  whether  by  means  of  his 
medicine  chest  or  his  trusty  steel  the  narrator  say- 
eth  not,  and  then  it  was  learned  that  a  great  hoard 
of  gold  was  hidden  in  its  foul  den.  Some  men  of 
Herefordshire  sallied  forth  by  night  to  search  for  the 
treasure,  and  were  about  to  lay  hands  on  it  when  re- 
tainers of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  captured  them  and 
took  the  booty  to  their  lord. 

Blenkinsopp  Castle  is  haunted  by  a  very  sorrowful 
White  Lady.  Her  husband,  Bryan  de  Blenkinsopp, 
was  uncommonly  greedy  of  gold,  which  he  loved  bet- 
ter than  his  wife,  and  she,  being  very  jealous  and 
angry,  was  mad  enough  to  hide  from  him  a  chest  of 
treasure  so  heavy  that  twelve  strong  men  were 
needed  to  lift  it.  Later  she  was  overtaken  by  re- 
morse because  of  this  undutiful  behavior  and  to  this 
day  her  uneasy  ghost  flits  about  the  castle,  sup- 
posedly seeking  the  spirit  of  Bryan  de  Blenkinsopp 
in  order  that  she  may  tell  him  what  she  did  with 
his  pelf. 

When  Corfe  Castle  in  Dorsetshire  was  besieged  by 
Cromwell's  troops,  Lady  Bankes  conducted  a  heroic 
defense.  Betrayed  by  one  of  her  own  garrison,  and 
despairing  of  holding  out  longer,  she  threw  all  the 
plate  and  jewels  into  a  very  deep  well  in  the  castle 
yard,  and  pronounced  a  curse  against  anyone  who 
should  try  to  find  it  ere  she  returned.  She  then 
ordered  the  traitor  to  be  hanged,  and  surrendered 
the  place.  The  treasure  was  never  found,  and  per- 
haps later  owners  have  been  afraid  of  the  militant 
ghost  of  Lady  Bankes. 

From  time  immemorial,  tradition  had  it  that  a 
great  treasure  was  buried  near  the  Ribble  in  Lan- 
cashire. A  saying  had  been  handed  down  that  any- 
one standing  on  the  hill  at  Walton-le-Dale  and  look- 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES         13 

ing  up  the  valley  toward  the  site  of  ancient  Richester 
would  gaze  over  the  greatest  treasure  that  England 
had  ever  known.  Digging  was  undertaken  at  inter- 
vals during  several  centuries,  until  in  1841  laborers 
accidentally  excavated  a  mass  of  silver  ornaments, 
armlets,  neck-chains,  amulets  and  rings,  weighing  to- 
gether about  a  thousand  ounces,  and  more  than  seven 
thousand  silver  coins,  mostly  of  King  Alfred's  time, 
all  enclosed  in  a  leaden  case  only  three  feet  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  ground.  Many  of  these  ornaments 
and  coins  are  to  be  seen  at  the  British  Museum. 

On  a  farm  in  the  Scotch  parish  of  Lesmahagow  is 
a  boulder  beneath  which  is  what  local  tradition  calls 
"a  kettle  full,  a  boat  full,  and  a  bull's  hide  full  of 
gold  that  is  Katie  Nevin's  hoord."  And  for  ages 
past  'tis  well  known  that  a  pot  of  gold  has  lain  at  the 
bottom  of  a  pool  at  the  tail  of  a  water-fall  under 
Crawfurdland  Bridge,  three  miles  from  Kilmar- 
nock. The  last  attempt  to  fish  it  up  was  made  by 
one  of  the  lairds  of  the  place  who  diverted  the 
stream  and  emptied  the  pool,  and  the  implements  of 
the  workmen  actually  rang  against  the  precious  ket- 
tle when  a  mysterious  voice  was  heard  to  cry : 

1 '  Paw !    Paw !    Crawfurdland 's  tower 's  in  a  law. ' ' 

The  laird  and  his  servants  scampered  home  to  find 
out  whether  the  tower  had  been  "laid  law,"  but  the 
alarm  was  only  a  stratagem  of  the  spirit  that  did 
sentry  duty  over  the  treasure.  When  the  party  re- 
turned to  the  pool,  it  was  filled  to  the  brim  and  the 
water  was  "running  o'er  the  linn,"  which  was  an 
uncanny  thing  to  see,  and  the  laird  would  have  noth- 
ing more  to  do  with  treasure  seeking. 

The  people  of  Glenary  in  the  Highlands  long  swore 
by  the  legend  that  golden  treasure  was  hidden  in 
their  valley  and  that  it  would  not  be  found  until 


14     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

sought  for  by  the  son  of  a  stranger.  At  length, 
while  a  newly  drained  field  was  being  plowed,  a  large 
rock  was  shattered  by  blasting,  and  under  it  were 
found  many  solid  gold  bracelets  of  antique  pattern 
and  cunningly  ornamented.  The  old  people  knew 
that  the  prophecy  had  come  true,  for  the  youth  who 
held  the  plow  was  the  son  of  an  Englishman,  a  rare 
being  in  those  parts  a  few  generations  ago. 

Everyone  knows  that  Ireland  is  fairly  peppered 
with  "  crocks  o'  goold"  which  the  peasantry  would 
have  dug  up  long  before  this,  but  the  treasure  is  in- 
variably in  the  keeping  of  "the  little  black  men"  and 
they  raise  the  divil  and  all  with  the  bold  intruder, 
and  lucky  he  is  if  he  is  not  snatched  away,  body, 
soul,  and  breeches.  Many  a  fine  lad  has  left  home 
just  before  midnight  with  a  mattock  under  his  arm, 
and  maybe  there  was  a  terrible  clap  of  thunder  and 
that  was  the  last  of  him  except  the  empty  hole  and 
the  mattock  beside  it  which  his  friends  found  next 
morning. 

In  France  treasure  seeking  has  been  at  times  a 
popular  madness.  The  traditions  of  the  country  are 
singularly  alluring,  and  perhaps  the  most  romantic 
of  them  is  that  of  the  "Great  Treasure  of  Gourdon" 
which  is  said  to  have  existed  since  the  reign  of  Clovis 
in  the  sixth  century.  The  chronicle  of  all  the  wealth 
buried  in  the  cemetery  of  this  convent  at  Gourdon 
in  the  Department  of  the  Lot  has  been  preserved,  in- 
cluding detailed  lists  of  gold  and  silver,  rubies,  em- 
eralds and  pearls.  The  convent  was  sacked  and 
plundered  by  the  Normans,  and  the  treasurer,  or 
custodian,  who  had  buried  all  the  valuables  of  the  re- 
ligious houses  under  the  sway  of  the  same  abbot, 
was  murdered  while  trying  to  escape  to  the  feudal 
seignor  of  Gourdon  with  the  crosier  of  the  lord 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES  15 

abbott.  ' '  The  head  of  the  crosier  was  of  solid  gold, ' ' 
says  an  ancient  manuscript,  "and  the  rubies  with 
which  it  was  studded  of  such  wondrous  size  that  at 
one  single  blow  the  soldier  who  tore  it  from  the 
monk's  grasp  and  used  it  as  a  weapon  against  him, 
beat  in  his  brains  as  with  a  sledge-hammer." 

Not  only  through  the  Middle  Ages  was  the  search 
resumed  from  time  to  time,  but  from  the  latter  days 
of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  until  the  Revolution,  tra- 
dition relates  that  the  cemetery  of  the  convent  was 
ransacked  at  frequent  intervals.  At  length,  in  1842, 
the  quest  was  abandoned  after  antiquarians,  geolo- 
gists, and  engineers  had  gravely  agreed  that  further 
excavation  would  be  futile.  The  French  treasure 
seekers  went  elsewhere  and  then  a  peasant  girl  con- 
fused the  savants  by  discovering  what  was  undeni- 
ably a  part  of  the  lost  riches  of  Gourdon.  She  was 
driving  home  the  cows  from  a  pasture  of  the  abbey 
lands  when  a  shower  caused  her  to  take  shelter  in  a 
hollow  scooped  out  of  a  sand-bank  by  laborers  mend- 
ing the  road.  Some  of  the  earth  caved  in  upon  her 
and  while  she  was  freeing  herself,  down  rolled  a 
salver,  a  paten,  and  a  flagon,  all  of  pure  gold,  richly 
chased  and  studded  with  emeralds  and  rubies. 
These  articles  were  taken  to  Paris  and  advertised 
for  sale  by  auction,  the  Government  bidding  them  in 
and  placing  them  in  the  museum  of  the  Bibliotheque. 

During  the  reign  of  Napoleon  III  there  died  a 
very  famous  treasure  seeker,  one  Ducasse,  who  be- 
lieved that  he  was  about  to  discover  "the  master 
treasure"  (le  maitre  tresor)  said  to  be  among  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  Belgian  Abbey  of  Orval.  Du- 
casse was  a  builder  by  trade  and  had  gained  a  large 
fortune  in  government  contracts  every  sou  of  which 
he  wasted  in  exploring  at  Orval.    It  was  alleged  that 


16  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  treasure  had  been  buried  by  the  monks  and  that 
the  word  NEMO  carved  on  the  tomb  of  the  last  ab- 
bott  held  the  key  to  the  location  of  the  hiding-place. 

In  Mexico  one  hears  similar  tales  of  vast  riches 
buried  by  religious  orders  when  menaced  by  war  or 
expulsion.  One  of  these  is  to  be  found  in  the  south- 
western part  of  the  state  of  Chihuahua  where  a  great 
gorge  is  cut  by  the  Eio  Verde.  In  this  remote  val- 
ley are  the  ruins  of  a  church  built  by  the  Jesuits, 
and  when  they  were  about  to  be  driven  from  their 
settlement  they  sealed  up  and  destroyed  all  traces 
of  a  fabulously  rich  mine  in  which  was  buried  mil- 
lions of  bullion.  Instead  of  the  more  or  less  stereo- 
typed ghosts  familiar  as  sentinels  over  buried  treas- 
ure, these  lost  hoards  of  Mexico  are  haunted  by  a 
specter  even  more  disquieting  than  phantom  pirates 
or ' '  little  black  men. "  It  is  "  The  Weeping  Woman ' ' 
who  makes  strong  men  cross  themselves  and  shiver 
in  their  serapes,  and  many  have  heard  or  seen  her. 
A  member  of  a  party  seeking  buried  treasure  in  the 
heart  of  the  Sierra  Madre  mountains  solemnly  af- 
firmed as  follows : 

"We  were  to  measure,  at  night,  a  certain  distance 
from  a  cliff  which  was  to  be  found  by  the  relative  po- 
sitions of  three  tall  trees.  It  was  on  a  bleak  table- 
land nine  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  The  wind 
chilled  us  to  the  marrow,  although  we  were  only  a 
little  to  the  north  of  the  Tropic  of  Cancer.  We  rode 
all  night  and  waited  for  the  dawn  in  the  darkest  and 
coldest  hours  of  those  altitudes.  By  the  light  of  pitch 
pine  torches  we  consulted  a  map  and  decided  that 
we  had  found  the  right  place.  We  rode  forward  a 
little  and  brushed  against  three  soft  warm  things. 
Turning  in  our  saddles,  by  the  flare  of  our  torches 
held  high  above  our  heads  we  beheld  three  corpses 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES  17 

swaying  in  the  wind.  A  wailing  cry  of  a  woman's 
voice  came  from  close  at  hand,  and  we  fled  as  if  pur- 
sued by  a  thousand  demons.  My  comrades  assured 
me  that  the  Weeping  Woman  had  brushed  past  us  in 
her  eternal  flight." 

This  is  a  singular  narrative  but  it  would  not  be 
playing  fair  to  doubt  it.  To  be  over-critical  of 
buried  treasure  stories  is  to  clip  the  wings  of  romance 
and  to  condemn  the  spirit  of  adventure  to  a  pedes- 
trian gait.  All  these  tales  are  true,  or  men  of  sane 
and  sober  repute  would  not  go  a-treasure  hunting  by 
land  and  sea,  and  so  long  as  they  have  a  high-hearted, 
boyish  faith  in  their  mysterious  charts  and  hazy 
information,  doubters  make  a  poor  show  of  them- 
selves and  stand  confessed  as  thin-blooded  dullards 
who  never  were  young.  Scattered  legends  of  many 
climes  have  been  mentioned  at  random  to  show  that 
treasure  is  everywhere  enveloped  in  a  glamour  pe- 
culiarly its  own.  The  base  iconoclast  may  perhaps 
demolish  Santa  Claus  (which  God  forbid),  but  in- 
dustrious dreamers  will  be  digging  for  the  gold  of 
Captain  Kidd,  long  after  the  last  Christmas  stocking 
shall  have  been  pinned  above  the  fireplace. 

There  are  no  conscious  liars  among  the  tellers  of 
treasure  tales.  The  spell  is  upon  them.  They  be- 
lieve their  own  yarns,  and  they  prove  their  faith 
by  their  back-breaking  works  with  pick  and  shovel. 
Here,  for  example,  is  a  specimen,  chosen  at  hazard, 
one  from  a  thousand  cut  from  the  same  cloth.  This 
is  no  modern  Ananias  speaking  but  a  gray-bearded, 
God-fearing  clam-digger  of  Jewell's  Island  in  Casco 
Bay  on  the  coast  of  Maine. 

"I  can't  remember  when  the  treasure  hunters  first 
began  coming  to  this  island,  but  as  long  ago  as  my 
father's  earliest  memories  they  used  to  dig  for  gold 


18  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

up  and  down  the  shore.  That  was  in  the  days  when 
they  were  superstitious  enough  to  spill  lamb's  blood 
along  the  ground  where  they  dug  in  order  to  keep 
away  the  devil  and  his  imps.  I  can  remember  fifty 
years  ago  when  they  brought  a  girl  down  here  and 
mesmerized  her  to  see  if  she  could  not  lead  them  to 
the  hidden  wealth. 

"The  biggest  mystery,  though,  of  all  the  queer 
things  that  have  happened  here  in  the  last  hundred 
years  was  the  arrival  of  the  man  from  St.  John's 
when  I  was  a  youngster.  He  claimed  to  have  the 
very  chart  showing  the  exact  spot  where  Kidd's  gold 
was  buried.  He  said  he  had  got  it  from  an  old 
negro  in  St.  John's  who  was  with  Captain  Kidd  when 
he  was  coasting  the  islands  in  this  bay.  He  showed 
up  here  when  old  Captain  Chase  that  lived  here  then 
was  off  to  sea  in  his  vessel.  So  he  waited  around  a 
few  days  till  the  captain  returned,  for  he  wanted 
to  use  a  mariner's  compass  to  locate  the  spot  accord- 
ing to  the  directions  on  the  chart. 

"When  Captain  Chase  came  ashore  the  two  went 
off  up  the  beach  together,  and  the  man  from  St. 
John's  was  never  seen  again,  neither  hide  nor  hair 
of  him,  and  it  is  plumb  certain  that  he  wasn't  set  off 
in  a  boat  from  Jewell's. 

"The  folks  here  found  a  great  hole  dug  on  the 
southeast  shore  which  looked  as  if  a  large  chest  had 
been  lifted  out  of  it.  Of  course  conclusions  were 
drawn,  but  nobody  got  at  the  truth.  Four  years  ago 
someone  found  a  skeleton  in  the  woods,  unburied, 
simply  dropped  into  a  crevice  in  the  rocks  with  a  few 
stones  thrown  over  it.  No  one  knows  whose  body 
it  was,  although  some  say, — but  never  mind  about 
that.  This  old  Captain  Jonathan  Chase  was  said  to 
have  been  a  pirate,  and  his  house  was  full  of  under- 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES         19 

ground  passages  and  sliding  panels  and  queer  con- 
traptions, such  as  no  honest,  law-abiding  man  could 
have  any  use  for." 

The  worthy  Benjamin  Franklin  was  an  admirable 
guide  for  young  men,  a  sound  philosopher,  and  a  sa- 
gacious statesman,  but  he  cannot  be  credited  with 
romantic  imagination.  He  would  have  been  the  last 
person  in  the  world  to  lead  a  buried  treasure  expedi- 
tion or  to  find  pleasure  in  the  company  of  the  most 
eminent  and  secretive  pirate  that  ever  scuttled  a  ship 
or  made  mysterious  marks  upon  a  well-thumbed  chart 
plentifully  spattered  with  candle-grease  and  rum. 
He  even  took  pains  to  discourage  the  diverting  in- 
dustry of  treasure  seeking  as  it  flourished  among  his 
Quaker  neighbors  and  discharged  this  formidable 
broadside  in  the  course  of  a  series  of  essays  known 
as  ' '  The  Busy-Body  Series ' ' : 

"  ...  There  are  among  us  great  numbers  of 
honest  artificers  and  laboring  people,  who,  fed  with 
a  vain  hope  of  suddenly  growing  rich,  neglect  their 
business,  almost  to  the  ruining  of  themselves  and 
families,  and  voluntarily  endure  abundance  of  fa- 
tigue in  a  fruitless  search  after  imaginary  hidden 
treasure.  They  wander  through  the  woods  and 
bushes  by  day  to  discover  the  marks  and  signs;  at 
midnight  they  repair  to  the  hopeful  spots  with  spades 
and  pickaxes;  full  of  expectation,  they  labor  vio- 
lently, trembling  at  the  same  time  in  every  joint 
through  fear  of  certain  malicious  demons,  who  are 
said  to  haunt  and  guard  such  places. 

"At  length  a  mighty  hole  is  dug,  and  perhaps  sev- 
eral cart-loads  of  earth  thrown  out ;  but,  alas,  no  keg 
or  iron  pot  is  found.  No  seaman's  chest  crammed 
with  Spanish  pistoles,  or  weighty  pieces  of  eight! 
They  conclude  that,  through  some  mistake  in  the 


20    THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

procedure,  some  rash  word  spoken,  or  some  rule  of 
art  neglected,  the  guardian  spirit  had  power  to  sink 
it  deeper  into  the  earth,  and  convey  it  out  of  their 
reach.  Yet,  when  a  man  is  once  infatuated,  he  is  so 
far  from  being  discouraged  by  ill  success  that  he  is 
rather  animated  to  double  his  industry,  and  will  try 
again  and  again  in  a  hundred  different  places  in 
hopes  of  meeting  at  last  with  some  lucky  hit,  that 
shall  at  once  sufficiently  reward  him  for  all  his  ex- 
penses of  time  and  labor. 

'  "This  odd  humor  of  digging  for  money,  through 
a  belief  that  much  has  been  hidden  by  pirates  for- 
merly frequenting  the  (Schuylkill)  river,  has  for 
several  years  been  mighty  prevalent  among  us;  in- 
somuch that  you  can  hardly  walk  half  a  mile  out  of 
the  town  on  any  side  without  observing  several  pits 
dug  with  that  design,  and  perhaps  some  lately 
opened.  Men  otherwise  of  very  good  sense  have 
been  drawn  into  this  practice  through  an  overween- 
ing desire  of  sudden  wealth,  and  an  easy  credulity 
of  what  they  so  earnestly  wished  might  be  true. 
There  seems  to  be  some  peculiar  charm  in  the  con- 
ceit of  finding  money  and  if  the  sands  of  Schuylkill 
were  so  much  mixed  with  small  grains  of  gold  that 
a  man  might  in  a  day's  time  with  care  and  applica- 
tion get  together  to  the  value  of  half  a  crown,  I  make 
no  question  but  we  should  find  several  people  em- 
ployed there  that  can  with  ease  earn  five  shillings  a 
day  at  their  proper  trade. 

"Many  are  the  idle  stories  told  of  the  private 
success  of  some  people,  by  which  others  are  encour- 
aged to  proceed ;  and  the  astrologers,  with  whom  the 
country  swarms  at  this  time,  are  either  in  the  belief 
of  these  things  themselves,  or  find  their  advantage 
in  persuading  others  to  believe  them;  for  they  are 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES         21 

often  consulted  about  the  critical  times  for  digging, 
the  methods  of  laying  the  spirit,  and  the  like  whim- 
seys,  which  renders  them  very  necessary  to,  and  very 
much  caressed  by  these  poor,  deluded  money  hunters. 

1 '  There  is  certainly  something  very  bewitching  in 
the  pursuit  after  mines  of  gold  and  silver  and  other 
valuable  metals,  and  many  have  been  ruined  by 
it.     .    .    . 

"Let  honest  Peter  Buckram,  who  has  long  without 
success  been  a  searcher  after  hidden  money,  reflect  on 
this,  and  be  reclaimed  from  that  unaccountable  folly. 
Let  him  consider  that  every  stitch  he  takes  when  he 
is  on  his  shopboard,  is  picking  up  part  of  a  grain  of 
gold  that  will  in  a  few  days'  time  amount  to  a  pis- 
tole ;  and  let  Faber  think  the  same  of  every  nail  he 
drives,  or  every  stroke  with  his  plane.  Such 
thoughts  may  make  them  industrious,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, in  time  they  may  be  wealthy. 

"But  how  absurd  it  is  to  neglect  a  certain  profit 
for  such  a  ridiculous  whimsey ;  to  spend  whole  days 
at  the  '  George '  in  company  with  an  idle  pretender  to 
astrology,  contriving  schemes  to  discover  what  was 
never  hidden,  and  forgetful  how  carelessly  business 
is  managed  at  home  in  their  absence ;  to  leave  their 
wives  and  a  warm  bed  at  midnight  (no  matter  if  it 
rain,  hail,  snow,  or  blow  a  hurricane,  provided  that 
be  the  critical  hour),  and  fatigue  themselves  with  the 
violent  digging  for  what  they  shall  never  find,  and 
perhaps  getting  a  cold  that  may  cost  their  lives, 
or  at  least  disordering  themselves  so  as  to  be  fit  for 
no  business  beside  for  some  days  after.  Surely  this 
is  nothing  less  than  the  most  egregious  folly  and 
madness. 

"I  shall  conclude  with  the  words  of  the  discreet 
friend  Agricola  of  Chester  County  when  he  gave  his 


22  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

son  a  good  plantation.  'My  son,'  said  he,  'I  give 
thee  now  a  valuable  parcel  of  land;  I  assure  thee  I 
have  found  a  considerable  quantity  of  gold  by  dig- 
ging there ;  thee  mayest  do  the  same ;  but  thee  must 
carefully  observe  this,  Never  to  dig  more  than 
plough-deep." 

For  once  the  illustrious  Franklin  shot  wide  of  the 
mark.  These  treasure  hunters  of  Philadelphia,  who 
had  seen  with  their  own  eyes  more  than  one  notorious 
pirate,  even  Blackbeard  himself,  swagger  along 
Front  Street  or  come  roaring  out  of  the  Blue  An- 
chor Tavern  by  Dock  Creek,  were  finding  their  re- 
ward in  the  coin  of  romance.  Digging  mighty  holes 
for  a  taskmaster  would  have  been  irksome,  stupid 
business  indeed,  even  for  five  shillings  a  day.  They 
got  a  fearsome  kind  of  enjoyment  in  "  trembling 
violently  through  fear  of  certain  malicious  demons." 
And  honest  Peter  Buckram  no  doubt  discovered 
that  life  was  more  zestful  when  he  was  plying  shovel 
and  pickaxe,  or  whispering  with  an  astrologer  in  a 
corner  of  the  "George"  than  during  the  flat  hours 
of  toil  with  shears  and  goose.  If  the  world  had 
charted  its  course  by  Poor  Eichard's  Almanac, 
there  would  be  a  vast  deal  more  thrift  and  sober 
industry  than  exists,  but  no  room  for  the  spirit  of 
adventure  which  reckons  not  its  returns  in  dollars 
and  cents. 

There  are  many  kinds  of  lost  treasure,  by  sea  and 
by  land.  Some  of  them,  however,  lacking  the  color 
of  romance  and  the  proper  backgrounds  of  motive 
and  incident,  have  no  stories  worth  telling.  For  in- 
stance, there  were  almost  five  thousand  wrecks  on 
the  Great  Lakes  during  a  period  of  twenty  years,  and 
these  lost  vessels  carried  down  millions  of  treasure  or 
property  worth  trying  to  recover.    One  steamer  had 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES         23 

five  hundred  thousand  dollars '  worth  of  copper  in  her 
hold.  Divers  and  submarine  craft  and  wrecking 
companies  have  made  many  attempts  to  recover  these 
vanished  riches,  and  with  considerable  success,  now 
and  then  fishing  up  large  amounts  of  gold  coin  and 
bullion.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  average  six- 
teen-year-old boy  could  extract  not  one  solitary  thrill 
from  a  tale  of  lost  treasure  in  the  Great  Lakes,  even 
though  the  value  might  be  fairly  fabulous.  But  let 
him  hear  that  a  number  of  Spanish  coins  have  been 
washed  up  by  the  waves  on  a  beach  of  Yucatan  and 
the  discovery  has  set  the  natives  to  searching  for  the 
buried  treasure  of  Jean  Lafitte,  the  "  Pirate  of  the 
Gulf,"  and  our  youngster  pricks  up  his  ears. 

Many  noble  merchantmen  in  modern  times  have 
foundered  or  crashed  ashore  in  various  seas  with 
large  fortunes  in  their  treasure  rooms,  and  these  are 
sought  by  expeditions,  but  because  these  ships  were 
not  galleons  nor  carried  a  freightage  of  doubloons 
and  pieces  of  eight,  most  of  them  must  be  listed  in 
the  catalogue  of  undistinguished  sea  tragedies.  The 
distinction  is  really  obvious.  The  treasure  story 
must  have  the  picaresque  flavor  or  at  least  concern 
itself  with  bold  deeds  done  by  strong  men  in  days 
gone  by.    Like  wine  its  bouquet  is  improved  by  age. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  consider  lost  treasure  as  the 
peculiar  property  of  pirates  and  galleons,  and  yet 
what  has  become  of  the  incredibly  vast  riches  of  all 
the  vanished  kings,  despots,  and  soldiers  who  plun- 
dered the  races  of  men  from  the  beginnings  of  his- 
tory? Where  is  the  loot  of  ancient  Eome  that  was 
buried  with  Alaric?  Where  is  the  dazzling  treasure 
of  Samarcand  f  Where  is  the  wealth  of  Antioch,  and 
where  the  jewels  which  Solomon  gave  the  Queen 
of  Sheba?    During  thousands  of  years  of  warfare 


24    THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  treasures  of  the  Old  World  could  be  saved  from 
the  conqueror  only  by  hiding  them  underground,  and 
in  countless  instances  the  sword  must  have  slain 
those  who  knew  the  secret.  When  Genghis  Khan 
swept  across  Russia  with  his  hordes  of  savage  Mon- 
gols towns  and  cities  were  blotted  out  as  by  fire,  and 
doubtless  those  of  the  slaughtered  population  who 
had  gold  and  precious  stones  buried  them  and  there 
they  still  await  the  treasure  seeker.  What  was  hap- 
pening everywhere  during  the  ruthless  ages  of  con- 
quest and  spoliation  2  is  indicated  by  this  bit  of  nar- 
rative told  by  a  native  banker  of  India  to  W.  Forbes 
Mitchell,  author  of  "Reminiscences  of  the  Great 
Mutiny": 

"You  know  how  anxious  the  late  Maharajah  Scin- 
dia  was  to  get  back  the  fortress  of  Gwalior,  but  very 
few  knew  the  real  cause  prompting  him.  That  was 
a  concealed  horde  of  sixty  crores  (sixty  millions  ster- 
ling) of  rupees  in  certain  vaults  within  the  fortress, 
over  which  British  sentinels  had  been  walking  for 
thirty  years,  never  suspecting  the  wealth  hidden 
under  their  feet.  Long  before  the  British  Govern- 
ment restored  the  fortress  to  the  Maharajah  every- 
one who  knew  the  entrance  to  the  vaults  was  dead  ex- 
cept one  man  and  he  was  extremely  old.  Although 
he  was  in  good  health  he  might  have  died  any  day. 
If  this  had  happened,  the  treasure  might  have  been 

*  "As  to  Clive,  there  waa  no  limit  to  his  acquisitions  but  his  own 
moderation.  The  treasury  of  Bengal  was  thrown  open  to  him. 
There  were  piled  up,  after  the  usage  of  Indian  princes,  immense 
masses  of  coin,  among  which  might  not  seldom  be  detected  the 
florins  and  byzants  with  which,  before  any  European  ship  had 
turned  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  Venetians  purchased  the  stuffs 
and  spices  of  the  East.  Clive  walked  between  heaps  of  gold  and 
silver,  crowned  with  rubies  and  diamonds,  and  was  at  liberty  to  help 
himself." — Macauley. 


THE  HUNT  FOR  VANISHED  RICHES         25 

lost  to  the  owner  forever  and  to  the  world  for  ages, 
because  there  was  only  one  method  of  entrance  and 
it  was  most  cunningly  concealed.  On  all  sides,  ex- 
cept for  this  series  of  blind  passages,  the  vaults 
were  surrounded  by  solid  rock. 

"The  Maharajah  was  in  such  a  situation  that  he 
must  either  get  back  his  fortress  or  divulge  the  secret 
of  the  existence  of  the  treasure  to  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, and  risk  losing  it  by  confiscation.  As  soon 
as  possession  of  the  fortress  was  restored  to  him, 
and  even  before  the  British  troops  had  left  Gwalior 
territory,  masons  were  brought  from  Benares,  after 
being  sworn  to  secrecy  in  the  Temple  of  the  Holy 
Cow.  They  were  blindfolded  and  driven  to  the  place 
where  they  were  to  labor.  There  they  were  kept  as 
prisoners  until  the  hidden  treasure  had  been  exam- 
ined and  verified  when  the  hole  was  again  sealed  up 
and  the  workmen  were  once  more  blindfolded  and 
taken  back  to  Benares  in  the  custody  of  an  armed 
escort. ' ' 


CHAPTER  II 

CAPTAIN    KIDD   IN   FACT   AND   FICTION 

Doomed  to  an  infamy  undeserved,  his  name  red- 
dened with  crimes  he  never  committed,  and  made 
wildly  romantic  by  tales  of  treasure  which  he  did 
not  bury,  Captain  William  Kidd  is  fairly  entitled  to 
the  sympathy  of  posterity  and  the  apologies  of  all 
the  ballad-makers  and  alleged  historians  who  have 
obscured  the  facts  in  a  cloud  of  fable.  For  two  cen- 
turies his  grisly  phantom  has  stalked  through  the 
legends  and  literature  of  the  black  flag  as  the  king 
of  pirates  and  the  most  industrious  depositor  of  ill- 
gotten  gold  and  jewels  that  ever  wielded  pick  and 
shovel.  His  reputation  is  simply  prodigious,  his 
name  has  frightened  children  wherever  English  is 
spoken,  and  the  Kidd  tradition,  or  myth,  is  still  po- 
tent to  send  treasure-seekers  exploring  and  excavat- 
ing almost  every  beach,  cove,  and  headland  between 
Nova  Scotia  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Fate  has  played  the  strangest  tricks  imaginable 
with  the  memory  of  this  seventeenth  century  seafarer 
who  never  cut  a  throat  or  made  a  victim  walk  the 
plank,  who  was  no  more  than  a  third  or  fourth  rate 
pirate  in  an  era  when  this  interesting  profession 
was  in  its  heyday,  and  who  was  hanged  at  Execution 
Dock  for  the  excessively  unromantic  crime  of  crack- 
ing the  skull  of  his  gunner  with  a  wooden  bucket. 

As  for  the  riches  of  Captain  Kidd,  the  original 
documents  in  his  case,  preserved  among  the  state 

26 


Captain  Kidd  burying  his  Bible. 


Carousing  at  Old  Calabar  River. 

(From    The    Pirates'    Own    Book.) 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      27 

papers  of  the  Public  Kecord  Office  in  London,  relate 
with  much  detail  what  booty  he  had  and  what  he  did 
with  it.  Alas,  they  reveal  the  futility  of  the  searches 
after  the  stout  sea-chest  buried  above  high  water 
mark.  The  only  authentic  Kidd  treasure  was  dug  up 
and  inventoried  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago, 
nor  has  the  slightest  clue  to  any  other  been  found 
since  then. 

These  curious  documents,  faded  and  sometimes  tat- 
tered, invite  the  reader  to  thresh  out  his  own  con- 
clusions as  to  how  great  a  scoundrel  Kidd  really  was, 
and  how  far  he  was  a  scapegoat  who  had  to  be  hanged 
to  clear  the  fair  names  of  those  noble  lords  in  high 
places  who  were  partners  and  promoters  of  that  most 
unlucky  sea  venture  in  which  Kidd,  sent  out  to  catch 
pirates,  was  said  to  have  turned  amateur  pirate  him- 
self rather  than  sail  home  empty-handed.  Certain  it 
is  that  these  words  of  the  immortal  ballad  are 
cruelly,  grotesquely  unjust : 

I  made  a  solemn  vow,  when  I  sail'd,  when  I  sail'd, 

I  made  a  solemn  vow  when  I  sail'd. 
I  made  a  solemn  vow,  to  God  I  would  not  bow, 

Nor  myself  a  prayer  allow,  as  I  sail'd. 

I'd  a  Bible  in  my  hand,  when  I  sail'd,  when  I  sail'd, 
I'd  a  Bible  in  my  hand  when  I  sail'd. 

I'd  a  Bible  in  my  hand,  by  my  father's  great  command, 
And  I  sunk  it  in  the  sand  when  I  sail'd. 

In  English  fiction  there  are  three  treasure  stories 
of  surpassing  merit  for  ingenious  contrivance  and 
convincing  illusion.  These  are  Stevenson's  "Treas- 
ure Island";  Poe's  "Gold  Bug";  and  Washington 
Irving 's  "Wolfert  Webber."  Differing  widely  in 
plot  and  literary  treatment,  each  peculiar  to  the 


28     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

genius  of  its  author,  they  are  blood  kin,  sprung  from 
a  common  ancestor,  namely,  the  Kidd  legend.  Why 
this  half-hearted  pirate  who  was  neither  red-handed 
nor  of  heroic  dimensions  even  in  his  badness,  should 
have  inspired  more  romantic  fiction  than  any  other 
character  in  American  history  is  past  all  explaining. 

Strangely  enough,  no  more  than  a  generation  or 
two  after  Kidd's  sorry  remnants  were  swinging  in 
chains  for  the  birds  to  pick  at,  there  began  to  cluster 
around  his  memory  the  folk-lore  and  superstitions 
colored  by  the  supernatural  which  had  been  long  cur- 
rent in  many  lands  in  respect  of  buried  treasure.  It 
was  a  kind  of  diabolism  which  still  survives  in  many 
a  corner  of  the  Atlantic  coast  where  tales  of  Kidd 
are  told.  Irving  took  these  legends  as  he  heard  them 
from  the  long-winded  ancients  of  his  own  acquaint- 
ance and  wove  them  into  delightfully  entertaining 
fiction  with  a  proper  seasoning  of  the  ghostly  and  the 
uncanny.  His  formidable  hero  is  an  old  pirate  with 
a  sea  chest,  aforetime  one  of  Kidd's  rogues,  who  ap- 
pears at  the  Dutch  tavern  near  Corlear's  Hook,  and 
there  awaits  tidings  of  his  shipmates  and  the  hidden 
treasure.  It  is  well  known  that  Stevenson  employed 
a  strikingly  similar  character  and  setting  to  get 
"Treasure  Island"  under  way  in  the  opening  chap- 
ter. As  a  literary  coincidence,  a  comparison  of  these 
pieces  of  fiction  is  of  curious  interest.  The  similar- 
ity is  to  be  explained  on  the  ground  that  both  authors 
made  use  of  the  same  material  whose  ground-work 
was  the  Kidd  legend  in  its  various  forms  as  it  has 
been  commonly  circulated. 

Stevenson  confessed  in  his  preface: 

'*It  is  my  debt  to  Washington  Irving  that  exercises 
my  conscience,  and  justly  so,  for  I  believe  plagiarism 
was  rarely  carried  farther.    I  chanced  to  pick  up  the 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      29 

'Tales  of  a  Traveler'  some  years  ago,  with  a  view 
to  an  anthology  of  prose  narrative,  and  the  book  flew 
up  and  struck  me:  Billy  Bones,  his  chest,  the  com- 
pany in  the  parlor,  the  whole  inner  spirit  and  a  good 
deal  of  the  material  detail  of  my  first  chapters — all 
were  there,  all  were  the  property  of  Washington  Ir- 
ving. But  I  had  no  guess  of  it  then  as  I  sat  writing 
by  the  fireside,  in  what  seemed  the  springtides  of  a 
somewhat  pedestrian  fancy ;  nor  yet  day  by  day,  after 
lunch,  as  I  read  aloud  my  morning's  work  to  the  fam- 
ily. It  seemed  to  me  original  as  sin;  it  seemed  to 
belong  to  me  like  my  right  eye." 

After  the  opening  scenes  the  two  stories  veer  off  on 
diverging  tacks,  the  plot  of  Stevenson  moving  briskly 
along  to  the  treasure  voyage  with  no  inclusion  of  the 
supernatural  features  of  the  Kidd  tradition.  Irving, 
however,  narrates  at  a  leisurely  pace  all  the  gossip 
and  legend  that  were  rife  concerning  Kidd  in  the 
Manhattan  of  the  worthy  Knickerbockers.  And  he 
could  stock  a  treasure  chest  as  cleverly  as  Stevenson, 
for  when  Wolfert  Webber  dreamed  that  he  had  dis- 
covered an  immense  treasure  in  the  center  of  his 
garden,  "at  every  stroke  of  the  spade  he  laid  bare  a 
golden  ingot;  diamond  crosses  sparkled  out  of  the 
dust ;  bags  of  money  turned  up  their  bellies,  corpu- 
lent with  pieces  of  eight,  or  venerable  doubloons ;  and 
chests,  wedged  close  with  moidores,  ducats,  and  pis- 
tareens,  yawned  before  his  ravished  eyes  and  vom- 
ited forth  their  glittering  contents." 

The  warp  and  woof  of  " Wolfert  Webber"  is  the 
still  persistent  legend  that  Kidd  buried  treasure  near 
the  Highlands  of  the  lower  Hudson,  or  that  his  ship, 
the  Quedah  Merchant,  was  fetched  from  San  Do- 
mingo by  his  men  after  he  left  her  and  they  sailed 
her  into  the  Hudson  and  there  scuttled  the  vessel, 


30     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

scattering  ashore  and  dividing  a  vast  amount  of  plun- 
der, some  of  which  was  hidden  nearby.  Many  years 
ago  a  pamphlet  was  published,  purporting  to  be  true, 
which  was  entitled, ' '  An  Account  of  Some  of  the  Tra- 
ditions and  Experiments  Respecting  Captain  Kidd's 
Piratical  Vessel."  In  this  it  was  soberly  asserted 
that  Kidd  in  the  Quedah  Merchant  was  chased  into 
the  North  River  by  an  English  man-of-war,  and  find- 
ing himself  cornered  he  and  his  crew  took  to  the 
boats  with  what  treasure  they  could  carry,  after  set- 
ting fire  to  the  ship,  and  fled  up  the  Hudson,  thence 
footing  it  through  the  wilderness  to  Boston. 

The  sunken  ship  was  searched  for  from  time  to 
time,  and  the  explorers  were  no  doubt  assisted  by 
another  pamphlet  published  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century  which  proclaimed  itself  as : 

"A  Wonderful  Mesmeric  Revelation,  giving  an  Ac- 
count of  the  Discovery  and  Description  of  a  Sunken 
Vessel,  near  Caldwell's  Landing,  supposed  to  be  that 
of  the  Pirate  Kidd;  including  an  Account  of  his 
Character  and  Death,  at  a  distance  of  nearly  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  place." 

This  psychic  information  came  from  a  woman  by 
the  name  of  Chester  living  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  who  swore 
she  had  never  heard  of  the  sunken  treasure  ship  until 
while  in  a  trance  she  beheld  its  shattered  timbers 
covered  with  sand,  and  "bars  of  massive  gold,  heaps 
of  silver  coin,  and  precious  jewels  including  many 
large  and  brilliant  diamonds.  The  jewels  had  been 
enclosed  in  shot  bags  of  stout  canvas.  There  were 
also  gold  watches,  like  duck's  eggs  in  a  pond  of 
water,  and  the  wonderfully  preserved  remains  of  a 
very  beautiful  woman,  with  a  necklace  of  diamonds 
around  her  neck. ' ' 

As  Irving  takes  pains  to  indicate,  the  basis  of  the 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      31 

legend  of  the  sunken  pirate  ship  came  not  from 
Kidd  but  from  another  freebooter  who  flourished  at 
the  same  time.  Says  Peechy  Prauw,  daring  to  hold 
converse  with  the  old  buccaneer  in  the  tavern,  "Kidd 
never  did  bury  money  up  the  Hudson,  nor  indeed  in 
any  of  those  parts,  though  many  affirmed  such  to  be 
the  fact.  It  was  Bradish  and  others  of  the  buc- 
caneers who  had  buried  money ;  some  said  in  Turtle 
Bay,  others  on  Long  Island,  others  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Hell-gate." 

This  Bradish  was  caught  by  Governor  Bellomont 
and  sent  to  England  where  he  was  hanged  at  Execu- 
tion Dock.  He  had  begun  his  career  of  crime  afloat 
as  boatswain  of  a  ship  called  the  Adventure  (not 
Kidd's  vessel).  While  on  a  voyage  from  London  to 
Borneo  he  helped  other  mutineers  to  take  the  vessel 
from  her  skipper  and  go  a-cruising  as  gentlemen  of 
fortune.  They  split  up  forty  thousand  dollars  of 
specie  found  on  board,  snapped  up  a  few  merchant- 
men to  fatten  their  dividends,  and  at  length  came  to 
the  American  coast  and  touched  at  Long  Island. 

The  Adventure  ship  was  abandoned,  and  there  is 
reason  to  think  that  she  was  taken  possession  of  by 
the  crew  of  the  purchased  sloop,  who  worked  her 
around  to  New  York  and  beached  and  sunk  her  after 
stripping  her  of  fittings  and  gear.  Bradish  and  his 
crew  also  cruised  along  the  Sound  for  some  time  in 
their  small  craft,  landing  and  buying  supplies  at  sev- 
eral places,  until  nineteen  of  them  were  caught  and 
taken  to  Boston.  That  there  should  have  been  some 
confusion  of  facts  relating  to  Kidd  and  Bradish  is 
not  at  all  improbable. 

Among  the  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam  was  to  be 
found  that  world-wide  superstition  of  the  ghostly 
guardians  of  buried  treasure,  and  Irving  interpolates 


32  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  distressful  experience  of  Cobus  Quackenbos  "who 
dug  for  a  whole  night  and  met  with  incredible  dif- 
ficulty, for  as  fast  as  he  threw  one  shovelful  of  earth 
out  of  the  hole,  two  were  thrown  in  by  invisible 
hands.  He  succeeded  so  far,  however,  as  to  uncover 
an  iron  chest,  when  there  was  a  terrible  roaring, 
ramping,  and  raging  of  uncouth  figures  about  the 
hole,  and  at  length  a  shower  of  blows,  dealt  by  in- 
visible cudgels,  fairly  belabored  him  off  of  the  for- 
bidden ground.  This  Cobus  Quackenbos  had  de- 
clared on  his  death  bed,  so  that  there  could  not  be 
any  doubt  of  it.  He  was  a  man  that  had  devoted 
many  years  of  his  life  to  money-digging,  and  it 
was  thought  would  have  ultimately  succeeded,  had  he 
not  died  recently  of  a  brain  fever  in  the  almshouse. ' ' 
A  story  built  around  the  Kidd  tradition  but  of  a 
wholly  different  kind  is  that  masterpiece  of  curious 
deductive  analysis,  "The  Gold  Bug,"  with  its  cryp- 
togram and  elaborate  mystification.  In  making  use 
of  an  historical  character  to  serve  the  ends  of  fic- 
tion it  is  customary  to  make  him  move  among  the 
episodes  of  the  story  with  some  regard  for  the  prob- 
abilities. For  example,  it  would  hardly  do  to  have 
Napoleon  win  the  Battle  of  Waterloo  as  the  hero 
of  a  novel.  What  really  happened  and  what  the 
author  imagines  might  have  happened  must  be  dove- 
tailed with  an  eye  to  avoid  contradicting  the  known 
facts.  Like  almost  everyone  else,  however,  Poe  took 
the  most  reckless  liberties  with  the  career  of  poor 
Captain  Kidd  and  his  buried  treasure  and  cared  not 
a  rap  for  historical  evidence  to  the  contrary.  Al- 
though Stevenson  is  ready  to  admit  that  his  "skel- 
eton is  conveyed  from  Poe,"  the  author  of  "Treas- 
ure Island"  is  not  wholly  fair  to  himself.  The 
tradition  that  secretive  pirates  were  wont  to  knock 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      33 

a  shipmate  or  two  on  the  head  as  a  feature  of  the 
program  of  burying  treasure  is  as  old  as  the  hills. 
The  purpose  was  either  to  get  rid  of  the  witnesses 
who  had  helped  dig  the  hole,  or  to  cause  the  spot  to 
be  properly  haunted  by  .ghosts  as  an  additional 
precaution  against  the  discovery  of  the  hoard. 

What  Stevenson  " conveyed"  from  Poe  was  the 
employment  of  a  skeleton  to  indicate  the  bearings 
and  location  of  the  treasure,  although,  to  be  accurate, 
it  was  a  skull  that  figured  in  "The  Gold  Bug." 
Otherwise,  in  the  discovery  of  the  remains  of  slain 
pirates,  both  were  using  a  stock  incident  of  buried 
treasure  lore  most  generally  fastened  upon  the  un- 
fortunate Captain  Kidd. 

Most  of  the  treasure  legends  of  the  Atlantic  coast 
are  fable  and  moonshine,  with  no  more  foundation 
than  what  somebody  heard  from  his  grandfather 
who  may  have  dreamed  that  Captain  Kidd  or  Black- 
beard  once  landed  in  a  nearby  cove.  The  treasure 
seeker  needs  no  evidence,  however,  and  with  him 
1 '  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for. ' '  There 
is  a  marsh  of  the  Penobscot  river,  a  few  miles  in- 
land from  the  bay  of  that  name,  which  has  been  in- 
defatigably  explored  for  more  than  a  century.  A 
native  of  a  statistical  turn  of  mind  not  long  ago  ex- 
pressed himself  in  this  common-sense  manner : 

"Thousands  of  tons  of  soil  have  been  shovelled 
over  time  and  again.  I  figure  that  these  treasure 
hunters  have  handled  enough  earth  in  turning  up 
Codlead  Marsh  to  build  embankments  and  fill  cuts  for 
a  railroad  grade  twenty  miles  long.  In  other  words, 
if  these  lunatics  that  have  tried  to  find  Kidd's  money 
had  hired  out  with  railroad  contractors,  they  could 
have  earned  thirty  thousand  dollars  at  regular  day 
wages  instead  of  the  few  battered  old  coins  discov- 


34  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ered  in  1798  which  started  all  this  terrible  waste 
of  energy." 

The  most  convincing  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
a  pirates'  rendezvous  and  hoard  has  been  found  on 
Oak  Island,  Nova  Scotia.  In  fact,  this  is  the  true 
treasure  story,  par  excellence,  of  the  whole  Atlantic 
coast,  with  sufficient  mystery  to  give  it  precisely  the 
proper  flavor.  Local  tradition  has  long  credited 
Captain  Kidd  with  having  been  responsible  for  the 
indubitable  remains  of  piratical  activity,  but  it  has 
been  proved  that  Kidd  went  nowhere  near  Nova 
Scotia  after  he  came  sailing  home  from  the  East 
Indies,  and  the  industrious  visitors  to  Oak  Island 
are  therefore  unknown  to  history. 

The  island  has  a  sheltered  haven  called  Mahone 
Bay,  snugly  secluded  from  the  Atlantic,  with  deep 
water,  and  a  century  ago  the  region  was  wild  and  un- 
settled. Near  the  head  of  the  bay  is  a  small  cove 
which  was  visited  in  the  year  of  1795  by  three  young 
men  named  Smith,  MacGinnis,  and  Vaughan  who 
drew  their  canoes  ashore  and  explored  at  random 
the  noble  groves  of  oaks.  Soon  they  came  to  a 
spot  whose  peculiar  appearance  aroused  their  curi- 
osity. The  ground  had  been  cleared  many  years 
before;  this  was  indicated  by  the  second  growth  of 
trees  and  the  kind  of  vegetation  which  is  foreign  to 
the  primeval  condition  of  the  soil.  In  the  center 
of  the  little  clearing  was  a  huge  oak  whose  bark 
was  gashed  with  markings  made  by  an  axe.  One  of 
the  stout  lower  branches  had  been  sawn  off  at  some 
distance  from  the  trunk  and  to  this  natural  der- 
rick-arm had  been  attached  a  heavy  block  and  tackle 
as  shown  by  the  furrowed  scar  in  the  bark.  Directly 
beneath  this  was  a  perceptible  circular  depression 
of  the  turf,  perhaps  a  dozen  feet  in  diameter. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      35 

The  three  young  men  were  curious,  and  made  fur- 
ther investigation.  The  tide  chanced  to  be  uncom- 
monly low,  and  while  ranging  along  the  beach  of  the 
cove  they  discovered  a  huge  iron  ring-bolt  fastened 
to  a  rock  which  was  invisible  at  ordinary  low  water. 
They  reasonably  surmised  that  this  had  been  a  moor- 
ing place  in  days  gone  by.  Not  far  distant  a  boat- 
swain's whistle  of  an  ancient  pattern  and  a  copper 
coin  bearing  the  date  of  1713  were  picked  up. 

The  trio  scented  pirates'  treasure  and  shortly  re- 
turned to  the  cove  to  dig  in  the  clearing  hard  by  the 
great  oak.  It  was  soon  found  that  they  were  exca- 
vating in  a  clearly  defined  shaft,  the  walls  of  which 
were  of  the  solid,  undisturbed  earth  in  which  the 
cleavage  of  other  picks  and  shovels  could  be  distin- 
guished. The  soil  within  the  shaft  was  much  looser 
and  easily  removed.  Ten  feet  below  the  surface 
they  came  to  a  covering  of  heavy  oak  plank  which 
was  ripped  out  with  much  difficulty. 

At  a  depth  of  twenty  feet  another  layer  of  plank- 
ing was  uncovered,  and  digging  ten  feet  deeper,  a 
third  horizontal  bulkhead  of  timber  was  laid  bare. 
The  excavation  was  now  thirty  feet  down,  and  the 
three  men  had  done  all  they  could  without  a  larger 
force,  hoisting  machinery,  and  other  equipment. 
The  natives  of  Mahone  Bay,  however,  were  singularly 
reluctant  to  aid  the  enterprise.  Hair-raising  stories 
were  afloat  of  ghostly  guardians,  of  strange  cries, 
of  unearthly  fires  that  flickered  along  the  cove,  and 
all  that  sort  of  thing.  Superstition  effectually  forti- 
fied the  place,  and  those  bold  spirits,  Smith,  Mac- 
Ginnis,  and  Vaughan  were  forced  to  abandon  their 
task  for  lack  of  reinforcements. 

Half  a  dozen  years  later  a  young  physician  of 
Truro,  Dr.  Lynds,  visited  Oak  Island,  having  got 


36  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

wind  of  the  treasure  story,  and  talked  with  the  three 
men  aforesaid.  He  took  their  report  seriously,  made 
an  investigation  of  his  own,  and  straightway  or- 
ganized a  company  backed  by  considerable  capital. 
Prominent  persons  of  Truro  and  the  neighborhood 
were  among  the  investors,  including  Colonel  Robert 
Archibald,  Captain  David  Archibald,  and  Sheriff 
Harris.  A  gang  of  laborers  was  mustered  at  the 
cove,  and  the  dirt  began  to  fly.  The  shaft  was 
opened  to  a  depth  of  ninety-five  feet,  and,  as  before, 
some  kind  of  covering,  or  significant  traces  thereof, 
was  disclosed  every  ten  feet  or  so.  One  layer  was 
of  charcoal  spread  over  a  matting  of  a  substance 
resembling  cocoa  fibre,  while  another  was  of  putty, 
some  of  which  was  used  in  glazing  the  windows  of 
a  house  then  building  on  the  nearby  coast. 

Ninety  feet  below  the  surface,  the  laborers  found 
a  large  flat  stone  or  quarried  slab,  three  feet  long 
and  sixteen  inches  wide,  upon  which  was  chiselled 
the  traces  of  an  inscription.  This  stone  was  used 
in  the  jamb  of  a  fireplace  of  a  new  house  belong- 
ing to  Smith,  and  was  later  taken  to  Halifax  in  the 
hope  of  having  the  mysterious  inscription  deciphered. 
One  wise  man  declared  that  the  letters  read,  "Ten 
feet  below  two  million  pounds  lie  buried,"  but  this 
verdict  was  mostly  guess-work.  The  stone  is  still 
in  Halifax,  where  it  was  used  for  beating  leather  in 
a  book-binder's  shop  until  the  inscription  had  been 
worn  away. 

When  the  workmen  were  down  ninety-five  feet, 
they  came  to  a  wooden  platform  covering  the  shaft. 
Until  then  the  hole  had  been  clear  of  water,  but  over- 
night it  filled  within  twenty-five  feet  of  the  top. 
Persistent  efforts  were  made  to  bale  out  the  flood 
but  with  such  poor  success  that  the  shaft  was  aban- 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      37 

doned  and  another  sunk  nearby,  the  plan  being  to 
tunnel  into  the  first  pit  and  thereby  drain  it  and  get 
at  the  treasure.  The  second  shaft  was  driven  to  a 
depth  of  a  hundred  and  ten  feet,  but  while  the  tunnel 
was  in  progress  the  water  broke  through  and  made 
the  laborers  flee  for  their  lives.  The  company  had 
spent  all  its  money,  and  the  results  were  so  dis- 
couraging that  the  work  was  abandoned. 

It  was  not  until  1849  that  another  attempt  was 
made  to  fathom  the  meaning  of  the  extraordinary 
mystery  of  Oak  Island.  Dr.  Lynds  and  Vaughan 
were  still  alive  and  their  narratives  inspired  the  or- 
ganization of  another  treasure-seeking  company. 
Vaughan  easily  found  the  old  "Money  Pit"  as  it  was 
called,  and  the  original  shaft  was  opened  and  cleared 
to  a  depth  of  eighty-six  feet  when  an  inrush  of  water 
stopped  the  undertaking.  Again  the  work  ceased 
for  lack  of  adequate  pumping  machinery,  and  it  was 
decided  to  use  a  boring  apparatus  such  as  was  em- 
ployed in  prospecting  for  coal.  A  platform  was 
rigged  in  the  old  shaft,  and  the  large  auger  bit  its 
way  in  a  manner  described  by  the  manager  of  the 
enterprise  as  follows : 

"The  platform  was  struck  at  ninety-eight  feet, 
just  as  the  old  diggers  found  it.  After  going 
through  this  platform,  which  was  five  inches  thick 
and  proved  to  be  of  spruce,  the  auger  dropped 
twelve  inches  and  then  went  through  four  inches  of 
oak ;  then  it  went  through  twenty-two  inches  of  metal 
in  pieces,  but  the  auger  failed  to  take  any  of  it  ex- 
cept three  links  resembling  an  ancient  watch-chain. 
It  then  went  through  eight  inches  of  oak,  which  was 
thought  to  be  the  bottom  of  the  first  box  and  the 
top  of  the  next;  then  throught  twenty-two  inches  of 
metal  the  same  as  before ;  then  four  inches  of  oak  and 


38  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

six  inches  of  spruce,  then  into  clay  seven  feet  without 
striking  anything.  In  the  next  boring,  the  platform 
was  struck  as  before  at  ninety-eight  feet;  passing 
through  this,  the  auger  fell  about  eighteen  inches, 
and  came  in  contact  with,  as  supposed,  the  side  of  a 
cask.  The  flat  chisel  revolving  close  to  the  side  of 
the  cask  gave  it  a  jerk  and  irregular  motion.  On 
withdrawing  the  auger  several  splinters  of  oak,  such 
as  might  come  from  the  side  of  an  oak  stave,  and 
a  small  quantity  of  a  brown  fibrous  substance  re- 
sembling the  husk  of  a  cocoa-nut,  were  brought  up. 
The  distance  between  the  upper  and  lower  plat- 
forms was  found  to  be  six  feet.,, 

In  the  summer  of  1850  a  third  shaft  was  sunk 
just  to  the  west  of  the  Money  Pit,  but  this  also 
filled  with  water  which  was  discovered  to  be  salt 
and  effected  by  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  tide  in  the 
cove.  It  was  reasoned  that  if  a  natural  inlet  ex- 
isted, those  who  had  buried  the  treasure  must  have 
encountered  the  inflow  which  would  have  made  their 
undertaking  impossible.  Therefore  the  pirates  must 
have  driven  some  kind  of  a  tunnel  or  passage  from 
the  cove  with  the  object  of  flooding  out  any  sub- 
sequent intruders.  Search  was  made  along  the 
beach,  and  near  where  the  ring-bolt  was  fastened  in 
the  rock  a  bed  of  the  brown,  fibrous  material  was 
uncovered  and  beneath  it  a  mass  of  small  rock 
unlike  the  surrounding  sand  and  gravel. 

It  was  decided  to  build  a  coffer-dam  around  this 
place  which  appeared  to  be  a  concealed  entrance 
to  a  tunnel  connecting  the  cove  with  the  Money  Pit. 
In  removing  the  rock,  a  series  of  well-constructed 
drains  was  found,  extending  from  a  common  center, 
and  fashioned  of  carefully  laid  stone.  Before  the 
coffer-dam  was  finished,  it  was  overflowed  by  a  very 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      39 

high  tide  and  collapsed  under  pressure.  The  ex- 
plorers did  not  rebuild  it  but  set  to  work  sinking  a 
shaft  which  was  intended  to  cut  into  this  tunnel 
and  dam  the  inlet  from  the  cove.  One  failure,  how- 
ever, followed  on  the  heels  of  another,  and  shaft 
after  shaft  was  dug  only  to  be  caved  in  or  filled  by 
salt  water.  In  one  of  these  was  found  an  oak 
plank,  several  pieces  of  timber  bearing  the  marks  of 
tools,  and  many  hewn  chips.  A  powerful  pumping 
engine  was  installed,  timber  cribbing  put  into  the 
bottom  of  the  shafts,  and  a  vast  amount  of  clay 
dumped  on  the  beach  in  an  effort  to  block  up  the 
inlet  of  the  sea-water  tunnel.  Baffled  in  spite  of  all 
this  exertion,  the  treasure-seekers  spent  their  money 
and  had  to  quit  empty-handed. 

Forty  years  passed,  and  the  crumbling  earth  al- 
most filled  the  numerous  and  costly  excavations  and 
the  grass  grew  green  under  the  sentinel  oaks.  Then, 
in  1896,  the  cove  was  once  more  astir  with  boats  and 
the  shore  populous  with  toilers.  The  old  records 
had  been  overhauled  and  their  evidence  was  so  allur- 
ing that  fresh  capital  was  subscribed  and  many 
shares  eagerly  snapped  up  in  Truro,  Halifax  and 
elsewhere.  The  promoters  became  convinced  that 
former  attempts  had  failed  because  of  crude  appli- 
ances and  insufficient  engineering  skill,  and  this  time 
the  treasure  was  sought  in  up-to-date  fashion. 

Almost  twenty  deep  shafts  were  dug,  one  after  the 
other,  in  a  ring  about  the  Money  Pit,  and  tunnels 
driven  in  a  net-work.  It  was  the  purpose  of  the 
engineers  to  intercept  the  underground  channel  and 
also  to  drain  the  pirates'  excavation.  Hundreds  of 
pounds  of  dynamite  were  used  and  thousands  of 
feet  of  heavy  timber.  Further  traces  of  the  work  of 
the  ancient  contrivers  of  this  elaborate  hiding-place 


40     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

were  discovered,  but  the  funds  of  the  company  were 
exhausted  before  the  secret  of  the  Money  Pit  could 
be  revealed. 

Considerable  boring  was  done  under  the  direction 
of  the  manager,  Captain  Welling.  The  results  con- 
firmed the  previous  disclosures  achieved  by  the 
auger.  At  a  depth  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
feet,  Captain  Welling 's  crew  drilled  through  oak 
wood,  and  struck  a  piece  of  iron  past  which  they 
could  not  drive  the  encasing  pipe.  A  smaller  auger 
was  then  used  and  at  one  hundred  and  fifty-three 
feet  cement  was  found  of  a  thickness  of  seven  inches, 
covering  another  layer  of  oak.  Beyond  was  some 
soft  metal,  and  the  drill  brought  to  the  surface  a 
small  fragment  of  sheepskin  parchment  upon  which 
was  written  in  ink  the  syllable,  "vi"  or  "wi." 
Other  curious  samples,  wood  and  iron,  were  fished 
up,  but  the  ''soft  metal,"  presumed  to  be  gold  or 
silver,  refused  to  cling  to  the  auger.  It  was  of 
course  taken  for  granted  that  the  various  layers  of 
oak  planking  and  spruce  were  chests  containing  the 
treasure. 

During  the  various  borings,  seven  different  chests 
or  casks,  or  whatever  they  may  be,  have  been  en- 
countered. It  seems  incredible  that  any  pirates  or 
buccaneers  known  to  the  American  coast  should 
have  been  at  such  prodigious  pains  to  conceal  their 
plunder  as  to  dig  a  hole  a  good  deal  more  than  a 
hundred  feet  deep,  connect  it  with  the  sea  by  an 
underground  passage,  and  safeguard  it  by  many  lay- 
ers of  timber,  cement,  and  other  material.  Possibly 
some  of  the  famous  freebooters  of  the  Spanish  Main 
in  Henry  Morgan's  time  might  have  achieved  such 
a  task,  but  Nova  Scotia  was  a  coast  unknown  to 
them   and   thousands   of   miles    from   their   track. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      41 

Poor  Kidd  had  neither  the  men,  the  treasure,  nor 
the  opportunity  to  make  such  a  memorial  of  his 
career  as  this. 

Quite  recently  a  new  company  was  formed  to  grap- 
ple with  the  secret  of  Oak  Island  which  has  already 
swallowed  at  least  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  in 
labor  and  machinery.  For  more  than  a  century, 
sane,  hard-headed  Nova  Scotians  have  tried  to  reach 
the  bottom  of  the  "Money  Pit,"  and  as  an  attractive 
speculation  it  has  no  rival  in  the  field  of  treasure- 
seeking.  There  may  be  documents  somewhere  in  ex- 
istence, a  chart  or  memorandum  mouldering  in  a  sea 
chest  in  some  attic  or  cellar  of  France,  England, 
or  Spain,  that  will  furnish  the  key  to  this  rarely 
picturesque  and  tantalizing  puzzle.  The  unbeliever 
has  only  to  go  to  Nova  Scotia  in  the  summer  time 
and  seek  out  Oak  Island,  which  is  reached  by  way 
of  the  town  of  Chester,  to  find  the  deeply  pitted  area 
of  the  treasure  hunt,  and  very  probably  engines  and 
workmen  busy  at  the  fine  old  game  of  digging  for 
pirates'  gold. 

Let  us  now  give  the  real  Captain  Kidd  his  due, 
painting  him  no  blacker  than  the  facts  warrant,  and 
at  the  same  time  uncover  the  true  story  of  his  treas- 
ure, which  is  the  plum  in  the  pudding.  He  had  been 
a  merchant  shipmaster  of  brave  and  honorable  re- 
pute in  an  age  when  every  deep-water  voyage  was 
a  hazard  of  privateers  and  freebooters  of  all  flags, 
or  none  at  all.  In  one  stout  square-rigger  after  an- 
other, well  armed  and  heavily  manned,  he  had  sailed 
out  of  the  port  of  New  York,  in  which  he  dwelt  as 
early  as  1689.  He  had  a  comfortable,  even  pros- 
perous home  in  Liberty  Street,  was  married  to  a 
widow  of  good  family,  and  was  highly  thought  of  by 
the  Dutch  and  English  merchants  of  the  town.    A 


42  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

shrewd  trader  who  made  money  for  his  owners,  he 
was  also  a  fighting  seaman  of  such  proven  mettle  that 
he  was  given  command  of  privateers  which  cruised 
along  the  coasts  of  the  Colonies  and  harried  the 
French  in  the  West  Indies.  His  excellent  reputa- 
tion and  character  are  attested  by  official  documents. 
In  the  records  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Provincial 
Assembly  of  New  York  is  the  following  entry  under 
date  of  April  18,  1691 : 

''Gabriel  Monville,  Esq.  and  Thomas  Willet,  Esq. 
are  appointed  to  attend  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  acquaint  them  of  the  many  good  services 
done  to  this  Province  by  Captain  William  Kidd  in 
his  attending  here  with  his  Vessels  before  His  Ex- 
cellency's *  arrival,  and  that  it  would  be  acceptable 
to  His  Excellency  and  this  Board  that  they  consider 
of  some  suitable  reward  to  him  for  his  good 
services." 

This  indicates  that  Captain  Kidd  had  been  in  com- 
mand of  a  small  squadron  engaged  in  protecting  the 
commerce  of  the  colony.  On  May  14,  the  follow- 
ing was  adopted  by  the  House  of  Representatives : 

"Ordered,  that  His  Excellency  be  addressed  unto, 
to  order  the  Receiver  General  to  pay  to  Captain 
William  Kidd,  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Pounds  cur- 
rent money  of  this  Province,  as  a  suitable  reward 
for  the  many  good  services  done  to  this  Province.' ' 

In  June,  only  a  month  after  this,  Captain  Kidd 
was  asked  by  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  to  punish 
the  pirates  who  were  pestering  the  shipping  of  Bos- 
ton and  Salem.  The  negotiations  were  conducted  in 
this  wise: 

1  Governor  Henry  Sloughter. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      43 

By  the  Governor  and  Council. 

Proposals  offered  to  Captain  Kidd  and  Captain  Walking- 
ton  to  encourage  their  going  forth  in  their  Majesties' 
Service  to  suppress  an  Enemy  Privateer  now  upon  this 
Coast. 

That  they  have  liberty  to  beat  up  drums  for  forty  men 
apiece  to  go  forth  on  this  present  Expedition,  not  taking 
any  Children  or  Servants  without  their  Parents'  or  Mas- 
ters' Consent.  A  list  of  the  names  of  such  as  go  in  the 
said  Vessels  to  be  presented  to  the  Governor  before  their 
departure. 

That  they  cruise  upon  the  Coast  for  the  space  of  ten 
or  fifteen  days  in  search  of  the  said  Privateer,  and  then 
come  in  again  and  land  the  men  supplied  them  from 
hence. 

That  what  Provisions  shall  be  expended  within  the  said 
time,  for  so  many  men  as  are  in  both  the  said  Vessels,  be 
made  good  to  them  on  their  return,  in  case  they  take  no 
purchase ; 2  but  if  they  shall  take  the  Privateer,  or  any 
other  Vessels,  then  only  a  proportion  of  Provisions  for  so 
many  men  as  they  take  in  here. 

If  any  of  our  men  happen  to  be  wounded  in  the  en- 
gagement with  the  Privateer,  that  they  be  cured  at  the 
public  charge. 

That  the  men  supplied  from  hence  be  proportionable 
sharers  with  the  other  men  belonging  to  said  Vessels,  of 
all  purchase  that  shall  be  taken. 

Besides  the  promise  of  a  Gratuity  to  the  Captains, 
Twenty  Pounds  apiece  in  money. " 

Boston,  June  8th,  1691. 

To  this  thrifty  set  of  terms,  Captain  Kidd  made 
reply : 

"Imprimis,  To  have  forty  men,  with  their  arms, 
provisions,  and  ammunition. 

2  Prizes. 


44  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"2dly.  All  the  men  that  shall  be  wounded,  which 
have  been  put  in  by  the  Country,  shall  be  put  on 
shore,  and  the  Country  to  take  care  of  them.  And 
if  so  fortunate  as  to  take  the  Pirate  and  her  prizes, 
then  to  bring  them  to  Boston. 

"3rdly.  For  myself,  to  have  One  Hundred  Pounds 
in  money,  Thirty  Pounds  thereof  to  be  paid  down, 
the  rest  upon  my  return  to  Boston ;  and  if  we  bring 
in  said  Ship  and  her  Prizes,  then  the  same  to  be  di- 
vided amongst  our  men. 

"4thly.  The  Provisions  put  on  board  must  be  ten 
barrels  Pork  and  Beef,  ten  barrels  of  Flour,  two 
hogsheads  of  Peas,  and  one  barrel  of  Gunpowder 
for  the  great  guns. 

"5$hly.  That  I  will  cruise  on  the  coast  for  ten 
days'  time;  and  if  so  that  he  is  gone  off  the  coast, 
that  I  cannot  hear  of  him,  I  will  then,  at  my  return, 
take  care  and  set  what  men  on  shore  that  I  have  had, 
and  are  willing  to  leave  me  or  the  Ship. ' ' 

These  records  serve  to  show  in  what  esteem  Cap- 
tain Kidd  was  held  by  the  highest  officials  of  the 
Colonies.  Such  men  as  he  were  sailing  out  of  Bos- 
ton, New  York,  and  Salem  to  trade  in  uncharted  seas 
on  remote  coasts  and  fight  their  way  home  again  with 
rich  cargoes.  They  hammered  out  the  beginnings 
of  a  mighty  commerce  for  the  New  "World  and  cre- 
ated, by  the  stern  stress  of  circumstances,  as  fine  a 
race  of  seamen  as  ever  filled  cabin  and  forecastle. 

In  the  year  1695,  Captain  Kidd  chanced  to  be  an- 
chored in  London  port  in  his  brigantine  Antigoa, 
busy  with  loading  merchandise  and  shipping  a  crew 
for  the  return  voyage  across  the  Atlantic.  Now, 
Eichard  Coote,  Earl  of  Bellomont,  an  ambitious  and 
energetic  Irishman,  had  just  then  been  appointed 
royal  governor  of  the  Colonies  of  New  York  and 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      45 

Massachusetts,  and  he  was  particularly  bent  on  sup- 
pressing the  swarm  of  pirates  who  infested  the 
American  coast  and  waxed  rich  on  the  English  com- 
merce of  the  Indian  Ocean.  Their  booty  was  carried 
to  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  and  Boston,  even  from 
far-away  Madagascar,  and  many  a  colonial  mer- 
chant, outwardly  the  pattern  of  respectability,  was 
secretly  trafficking  in  this  plunder. 

"I  send  you,  my  Lord,  to  New  York,"  said  King 
William  III  to  Bellomont,  ''because  an  honest  and 
intrepid  man  is  wanted  to  put  these  abuses  down, 
and  because  I  believe  you  to  be  such  a  man." 

Thereupon  Bellomont  asked  for  a  frigate  to  send 
in  chase  of  the  bold  sea  rogues,  but  the  king  referred 
him  to  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  VhO  discovered 
sundry  obstacles  bound  in  red  tape,  the  fact  being 
that  official  England  was  at  all  times  singularly  in- 
different, or  covertly  hostile,  toward  the  maritime 
commerce  of  her  American  colonies.  Being  denied 
a  man-of-war,  Bellomont  conceived  the  plan  of 
privately  equipping  an  armed  ship  as  a  syndicate 
enterprise  without  cost  to  the  government.  The  pro- 
moters were  to  divide  the  swag  captured  from  pirates 
as  dividends  on  their  investment. 

The  enterprise  was  an  alluring  one,  and  six  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling  were  subscribed  by  Bellomont 
and  his  friends,  including  such  illustrious  personages 
as  Somers,  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  leader  of  the 
Whig  party;  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  the  Earl  of 
Orford,  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty;  the  Earl  of 
Romney,  and  Sir  Richard  Harrison,  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant. According  to  Bishop  Burnet,  it  was  the  king 
who  "proposed  managing  it  by  a  private  enterprise, 
and  said  he  would  lay  down  three  thousand  pounds 
himself,  and  recommended  it  to  his  Ministers  to  find 


46    THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

out  the  rest.  In  compliance  with  this,  the  Lord 
Somers,  the  Earl  of  Orford,  Romney,  Bellomont  and 
others,  contributed  the  whole  expense,  for  the  King 
excused  himself  by  reason  of  other  accidents,  and 
did  not  advance  the  sum  he  had  promised." 

Macauley,  discussing  in  his  "History  of  England" 
the  famous  scandal  which  later  involved  these  part- 
ners of  Kidd,  defends  them  in  this  spirited  fashion : 

"The  worst  that  could  be  imputed  even  to  Bello- 
mont, who  had  drawn  in  all  the  rest,  was  that  he  had 
been  led  into  a  fault  by  his  ardent  zeal  for  the  public 
service,  and  by  the  generosity  of  a  nature  as  little 
prone  to  suspect  as  to  devise  villainies.  His  friends 
in  England  might  surely  be  pardoned  for  giving 
credit  to  his  recommendations.  It  is  highly  prob- 
able that  the  motive  which  induced  some  of  them  to 
aid  his  designs  was  a  genuine  public  spirit.  But  if 
we  suppose  them  to  have  had  a  view  to  gain,  it  would 
be  legitimate  gain.  Their  conduct  was  the  very  op- 
posite of  corrupt.  Not  only  had  they  taken  no 
money.  They  had  disbursed  money  largely,  and  had 
disbursed  it  with  the  certainty  that  they  should  never 
be  reimbursed  unless  the  outlay  proved  beneficial  to 
the  public." 

It  would  be  easy  to  pick  flaws  in  this  argument. 
Bellomont 's  partners,  no  matter  how  public  spirited, 
hoped  to  reimburse  themselves,  and  something  over, 
as  receivers  of  stolen  goods.  It  was  a  dashing  spec- 
ulation, characteristic  of  its  century,  and  neither  bet- 
ter nor  worse  than  the  privateering  of  that  time. 
What  raised  the  subsequent  row  in  Parliament  and 
made  of  Kidd  a  political  issue  and  a  party  scape- 
goat, was  the  fact  that  his  commission  was  given 
under  the  Great  Seal  of  England,  thus  stamping  a 
private  business  with  the  public  sanction  of  His 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      47 

Majesty's  Government.  For  this  Somers,  as  Lord 
Chancellor,  was  responsible,  and  it  later  became  a 
difficult  transaction  for  his  partisans  to  defend. 

There  was  in  London,  at  that  time,  one  Robert 
Livingston,  founder  of  a  family  long  notable  in  the 
Colony  and  State  of  New  York,  a  man  of  large  prop- 
erty and  solid  station.  He  was  asked  to  recommend 
a  shipmaster  fitted  for  the  task  in  hand  and  named 
Captain  Kidd,  who  was  reluctant  to  accept.  His  cir- 
cumstances were  prosperous,  he  had  a  home  and 
family  in  New  York,  and  he  was  by  no  means  anxious 
to  go  roving  after  pirates  who  were  pretty  certain 
to  fight  for  their  necks.  His  consent  was  won  by  the 
promise  of  a  share  of  the  profits  (Kidd  was  a  canny 
Scot  by  birth)  and  by  the  offer  of  Livingston  to  be 
his  security  and  his  partner  in  the  venture. 

An  elaborate  contract  was  drawn  up  with  the  title 
of  ''Articles  of  Agreement  made  this  Tenth  day  of 
October  in  the  year  of  Our  Lord,  1695,  between  the 
Eight  Honorable  Richard,  Earl  of  Bellomont,  of  the 
one  part,  and  Robert  Livingston  Esq.,  and  Captain 
William  Kidd  of  the  other  part. ' ' 

In  the  first  article,  "the  said  Earl  of  Bellomont 
doth  covenant  and  agree  at  his  proper  charge  to  pro- 
cure from  the  King's  Majesty  or  from  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty,  as  the  case  may  re- 
quire, one  or  more  Commissions  impowering  him, 
the  said  Captain  Kidd,  to  act  against  the  King's 
enemies,  and  to  take  prizes  from  them  as  a  private 
man-of-war,  in  the  usual  manner,  and  also  to  fight 
with,  conquer  and  subdue  pyrates,  and  to  take  them 
and  their  goods,  with  such  large  and  beneficial  powers 
and  clauses  in  such  commissions  as  may  be  most 
proper  and  effectual  in  such  cases." 

Bellomont  agreed  to  pay  four-fifths  of  the  cost  of 


48     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  ship,  with  its  furnishings  and  provisions,  Kidd 
and  Livingston  to  contribute  the  remainder,  "in  pur- 
suance of  which  Bellomont  was  to  pay  down  1600 
pounds  on  or  before  the  6th  of  November,  in  order 
to  the  speedy  buying  of  said  ship. ' '  The  Earl  agreed 
to  pay  such  further  sums  as  should  "complete  and 
make  up  the  said  four  parts  of  five  of  the  charge  of 
the  said  ship's  apparel,  furniture,  and  victualling, 
within  seven  weeks  after  date  of  the  agreement,' ■ 
and  Kidd  and  Livingston  bound  themselves  to  do  like- 
wise in  respect  of  their  fifth  part  of  the  expense. 
Other  articles  of  the  agreement  read: 

"7.  The  said  Captain  Kidd  doth  covenant  and 
agree  to  procure  and  take  with  him  on  board  of  the 
said  ship,  one  hundred  mariners,  or  seamen,  or  there- 
about, and  to  make  what  reasonable  and  convenient 
speed  he  can  to  set  out  to  sea  with  the  said  ship,  and 
to  sail  to  such  parts  and  places  where  he  may  meet 
with  the  said  Pyrates,  and  to  use  his  utmost  endeavor 
to  meet  with,  subdue,  and  conquer  the  said  Pyrates, 
and  to  take  from  them  their  goods,  merchandise,  and 
treasures ;  also  to  take  what  prizes  he  can  from  the 
King's  enemies,  and  forthwith  to  make  the  best  of 
his  way  to  Boston  in  New  England,  and  that  without 
touching  at  any  other  port  or  harbor  whatsoever,  or 
without  breaking  bulk,  or  diminishing  any  part  of 
what  he  shall  so  take  or  obtain;  (of  which  he  shall 
make  oath  in  case  the  same  is  desired  by  the  said 
Earl  of  Bellomont),  and  there  to  deliver  the  same 
into  the  hands  or  possession  of  the  said  Earl. 

"8.  The  said  Captain  Kidd  doth  agree  that  the 
contract  and  bargain  which  he  will  make  with  the 
said  ship's  crew  shall  be  no  purchase,3  no  pay,  and 
not  otherwise;  and  that  the  share  and  proportion 

3  Prizes. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      49 

which  his  said  crew  shall,  by  such  contract,  have  of 
such  prizes,  goods,  merchandise  and  treasure,  as  he 
shall  take  as  prize,  or  from  any  Pyrates,  shall  not  at 
the  most  exceed  a  fourth  part  of  the  same,  and  shall 
be  less  than  a  fourth  part,  in  case  the  same  may  rea- 
sonably and  conveniently  be  agreed  upon. 

"9:  Robert  Livingston  Esq.  and  Captain  William 
Kidd  agree  that  if  they  catch  no  Pyrates,  they  will 
refund  to  the  said  Earl  of  Bellomont  all  the  money 
advanced  by  him  on  or  before  March  25th,  1697,  and 
they  will  keep  the  said  ship." 

Article  10  allotted  the  captured  goods  and  treas- 
ures, after  deducting  no  more  than  one-fourth  for 
the  crew.  The  remainder  was  to  be  divided  into  five 
equal  parts,  of  which  Bellomont  was  to  receive  four 
parts,  leaving  a  fifth  to  be  shared  between  Kidd  and 
Livingston.  The  stake  of  Captain  Kidd  was  there- 
fore to  be  three  one-fortieths  of  the  whole,  or  seven 
and  one-half  per  cent,  of  the  booty. 

It  is  apparent  from  these  singular  articles  of  agree- 
ment that  Robert  Livingston,  in  the  role  of  Kidd's 
financial  backer,  was  willing  to  run  boldly  speculative 
chances  of  success,  and  was  also  confident  that  a  rich 
crop  of  u pyrates"  could  be  caught  for  the  seeking. 
If  Kidd  should  sail  home  empty-handed,  then  these 
two  partners  stood  to  lose  a  large  amount,  by  virtue 
of  the  contract  which  provided  that  Bellomont  and 
his  partners  must  be  reimbursed  for  their  outlay, 
less  the  value  of  the  ship  itself.  Livingston  also 
gave  bonds  in  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  pounds  that 
Kidd  would  be  faithful  to  his  trust  and  obedient  to 
his  orders,  which  in  itself  is  sufficient  to  show  that 
this  shipmaster  was  a  man  of  the  best  intentions, 
and  of  thoroughly  proven  worth. 

Captain  Kidd's  privateering  commission  was  is- 


50     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

sued  by  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty  on  December 
11,  1695,  and  licensed  and  authorized  him  to  "set 
forth  in  war-like  manner  in  the  said  ship  called  the 
Adventure  Galley,  under  his  own  command,  and 
therewith,  by  force  of  arms,  to  apprehend,  seize,  and 
take  the  ships,  vessels,  and  goods  belonging  to  the 
French  King  and  his  subjects,  or  inhabitants  within 
the  dominion  of  the  said  French  King,  and  such 
other  ships,  vessels,  and  goods  as  are  or  shall  be 
liable  to  confiscation,"  etc. 

This  document  was  of  the  usual  tenor,  but  in  ad- 
dition, Captain  Kidd  was  granted  a  special  royal 
commission,  under  the  Great  Seal,  which  is  given 
herewith  because  it  so  intimately  concerned  the  later 
fortunes  of  his  noble  partners : 

WILLIAM  REX. 

WILLIAM  THE  THIRD,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  King 
of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and  Ireland,  Defender  of 
the  Faith,  etc.  To  our  trusty  and  well  beloved  Captain 
William  Kidd,  Commander  of  the  ship  Adventure  Galley, 
or  to  any  other,  the  commander  of  the  same  for  the  time 
being,  GREETING: 

Whereas,  we  are  informed  that  Captain  Thomas  Tew, 
John  Ireland,  Capt.  Thomas  Wake,  and  Capt.  William 
Maze,  and  other  subjects,  natives,  or  inhabitants  of  New 
York  and  elsewhere,  in  our  plantations  in  America,  have 
associated  themselves  with  divers  other  wicked  and  ill- 
disposed  persons,  and  do,  against  the  law  of  nations,  com- 
mit many  and  great  piracies,  robberies,  and  depredations 
on  the  seas  upon  the  parts  of  America  and  in  other  parts, 
to  the  great  hindrance  and  discouragement  of  trade  and 
navigation,  and  to  the  great  danger  and  hurt  of  our  loving 
subjects,  our  allies,  and  of  all  others  navigating  the  seas 
upon  their  lawful  occasions, 

NOW,  KNOW  YE,  that  we  being  desirous  to  prevent 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      51 

the  aforesaid  mischief,  and  as  much  as  in  us  lies,  to  bring 
the  said  pirates,  freebooters,  and  sea  rovers  to  justice,  have 
thought  fit,  and  do  hereby  give  and  grant  to  the  said 
Robert  Kidd  (to  whom  our  Commissioners  for  exercising 
the  office  of  Lord  High  Admiral  of  England  have  granted 
a  commission  as  a  private  man-of-war,  bearing  date  of 
the  11th  day  of  December,  1695),  and  unto  the  Commander 
of  the  said  ship  for  the  time  being,  and  unto  the  Officers, 
Mariners,  and  others  which  shall  be  under  your  command, 
full  power  and  authority  to  apprehend,  seize,  and  take 
into  your  custody,  as  well  the  said  Captain  Tew,  'John 
Ireland,  Capt.  Thomas  Wake,  and  Capt.  William  Maze, 
or  Mace,  and  all  such  pirates,  freebooters,  and  sea  rovers, 
being  either  our  subjects  or  of  other  nations  associated 
with  them,  which  you  shall  meet  with  upon  the  seas  or 
coasts  of  America,  or  upon  any  other  seas  or  coasts,  with 
all  their  ships  and  vessels,  and  all  such  merchandizes, 
money,  goods,  and  wares  as  shall  be  found  on  board,  or 
with  them,  in  case  they  shall  willingly  yield  themselves  up, 
but  if  they  will  not  yield  without  fighting,  then  you  are 
by  force  to  compel  to  yield. 

And  we  also  require  you  to  bring,  or  cause  to  be  brought, 
such  pirates,  freebooters,  or  sea  rovers  as  you  shall  seize, 
to  a  legal  trial  to  the  end  that  they  may  be  proceeded 
against  according  to  the  law  in  such  cases.  And  we  do 
hereby  command  all  our  Officers,  Ministers,  and  others  our 
loving  subjects  whatsoever  to  be  aiding  and  assisting  you 
in  the  premises,  and  we  do  hereby  enjoin  you  to  keep  an 
exact  journal  of  your  proceedings  in  execution  of  the 
premises,  and  set  down  the  names  of  such  pirates  and  of 
their  officers  and  company,  and  the  names  of  such  ships 
and  vessels  as  you  shall  by  virtue  of  these  presents  take 
and  seize,  and  the  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition,  pro- 
visions, and  lading  of  such  ships,  and  the  true  value  of 
the  same,  as  near  as  you  judge. 

And  we  do  hereby  strictly  charge  and  command,  and 
you  will  answer  the  contrary  to  your  peril,  that  you  do  not, 
in  any  manner,  offend  or  molest  our  friends  and  allies, 


52  .THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

their  ships  or  subjects,  by  colour  or  pretense  of  these  pres- 
ents, or  the  authority  thereof  granted.  In  witness  whereof, 
we  have  caused  our  Great  Seal  of  England  to  be  affixed 
to  these  presents.  Given  at  our  Court  in  Kensington,  the 
26th  day  of  January,  1696,  in  the  seventh  Year  of  our 
Reign. 

It  was  privately  understood  that  the  King  was  to 
receive  one-tenth  of  the  proceeds  of  the  voyage,  al- 
though this  stipulation  does  not  appear  in  the  articles 
of  agreement.  By  a  subsequent  grant  from  the 
Crown,  this  understanding  was  publicly  ratified  and 
all  money  and  property  taken  from  pirates,  except 
the  King's  tenth,  was  to  be  made  over  to  the  owners 
of  the  Adventure  Galley,  to  wit,  Bellomont  and  his 
partners,  and  Kidd  and  Livingston,  as  they  had 
agreed  among  themselves. 

The  Adventure  Galley,  the  ship  selected  for  the 
cruise,  was  of  287  tons  and  thirty-four  guns,  a  power- 
ful privateer  for  her  day,  which  Kidd  fitted  out  at 
Plymouth,  England.  Finding  difficulty  in  recruiting 
a  full  crew  of  mettlesome  lads,  he  sailed  from  that 
port  for  New  York  in  April  of  1696,  with  only  seventy 
hands.  While  anchored  in  the  Hudson,  he  increased 
his  company  to  155  men,  many  of  them  the  riff-raff 
of  the  water-front,  deserters,  wastrels,  brawlers,  and 
broken  seamen  who  may  have  sailed  under  the  black 
flag  aforetime.  It  was  a  desperate  venture,  the  pay 
was  to  be  in  shares  of  the  booty  taken,  "no  prizes,  no 
money,"  and  sober,  respectable  sailors  looked 
askance  at  it.  Kidd  was  impatient  to  make  an  offing. 
Livingston  and  Bellomont  were  chafing  at  the  delay, 
and  he  had  to  ship  what  men  he  could  find  at  short 
notice. 

The  Adventure  Galley  cruised  first  among  the 
West  Indies,  honestly  in  quest  of  "pirates,  freeboot- 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      53 

ers  and  sea  rovers,"  and  not  falling  in  with  any  of 
these  gentry,  Kidd  took  his  departure  for  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  and  the  Indian  Ocean.  This  was  in 
accordance  with  his  instructions,  for  in  the  preamble 
of  the  articles  of  agreement  it  was  stated  that  "cer- 
tain persons  did  some  time  since  depart  from  New 
England,  Khode  Island,  New  York,  and  other  parts 
in  America  and  elsewhere  with  an  intention  to  pyrate 
and  to  commit  spoyles  and  depredations  in  the  Red 
Sea  and  elsewhere,  and  to  return  with  such  riches 
and  goods  as  they  should  get  to  certain  places  by 
them  agreed  upon,  of  which  said  persons  and  places 
the  said  Captain  Kidd  hath  notice." 

This  long  voyage  was  soundly  planned.  Madagas- 
car was  the  most  notorious  haunt  of  pirates  in  the 
world.  Their  palm-thatched  villages  fringed  its 
beaches  and  the  blue  harbors  sheltered  many  sail 
which  sallied  forth  to  play  havoc  with  the  precious 
argosies  of  the  English,  French,  and  Dutch  East 
India  Companies.  Kidd  hoped  to  win  both  favor  and 
fortune  by  ridding  these  populous  trade  routes  of 
the  perils  that  menaced  every  honest  skipper. 

When,  at  length,  Madagascar  was  sighted,  the  Ad- 
venture Galley  was  nine  months  from  home,  and  not 
a  prize  had  been  taken.  Kidd  was  short  of  pro- 
visions and  of  money  with  which  to  purchase  sup- 
plies. His  crew  was  in  a  grumbling,  mutinous  tem- 
per, as  they  rammed  their  tarry  fists  into  their  empty 
pockets  and  stared  into  the  empty  hold.  The  captain 
quieted  them  with  promises  of  dazzling  spoil,  and  the 
Adventure  Galley  vainly  skirted  the  coast,  only  to 
find  that  some  of  the  pirates  had  got  wind  of  her 
coming  while  others  were  gone  a-cruising.  From  the 
crew  of  a  wrecked  French  ship,  Kidd  took  enough 
gold  to  buy  provisions  in  a  Malabar  port.    This  deed 


54  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

was  hardly  generous,  but  by  virtue  of  his  letters  of 
marque  Kidd  was  authorized  to  despoil  a  Frenchman 
wherever  he  caught  him. 

After  more  futile  cruising  to  and  fro,  Kidd  fell 
from  grace  and  crossed  the  very  tenuous  line  that 
divided  privateering  from  piracy  in  his  century. 
His  first  unlawful  capture  was  a  small  native  vessel 
owned  by  Aden  merchants  and  commanded  by  one 
Parker,  an  Englishman,  the  mate  being  a  Portu- 
guese. The  plunder  was  no  more  than  a  bale  or  two 
of  pepper  and  coffee,  and  a  few  gold  pieces.  It 
was  petty  larceny  committed  to  quiet  a  turbulent 
crew  and  to  pay  operating  expenses.  Parker  made 
loud  outcry  ashore  and  a  little  later  Kidd  was  over- 
taken by  a  vengeful  Portuguese  man-of-war  off  the 
port  of  Carawar.  The  two  ships  hammered  each 
other  with  broad-sides  and  bow-chasers  six  hours 
on  end,  when  Kidd  went  his  way  with  several  men 
wounded. 

Sundry  other  small  craft  were  made  to  stand  and 
deliver  after  this  without  harm  to  their  crews,  but 
no  treasure  was  lifted  until  Kidd  ventured  to  molest 
the  shipping  of  the  Great  Mogul.  That  fabled  poten- 
tate of  Asia  whose  empire  had  been  found  by  Gen- 
ghis Khan  and  extended  by  Tamerlane,  and  whose 
gorgeous  palaces  were  at  Samarcand,  had  a  mighty 
commerce  between  the  Red  Sea  and  China,  and  his 
rich  freights  also  swelled  the  business  of  the  Eng- 
lish East  India  Company.  His  ships  were  often 
convoyed  by  the  English  and  the  Dutch.  It  was 
from  two  of  these  vessels  that  Kidd  took  his  treas- 
ure and  thus  achieved  the  brief  career  which  rove 
the  halter  around  his  neck. 

The  first  of  these  ships  of  the  Great  Mogul  he 
looted  and  burned,  and  to  the  second,  the  Quedah 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION      55 

Merchant,  he  transferred  his  flag  after  forsaking  the 
leaky,  nnseaworthy  Adventure  Galley  on  the  Mada- 
gascar coast.  Out  of  this  capture  he  took  almost  a 
half  million  dollars'  worth  of  gold,  jewels,  plate, 
silks,  and  other  precious  merchandise  of  which  his 
crew  ran  away  with  by  far  the  greater  share,  leav- 
ing Kidd  with  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
in  booty. 

It  was  charged  that  while  on  this  coast  Kidd 
amicably  consorted  with  a  very  notorious  pirate 
named  Culliford,  instead  of  blowing  him  out  of  the 
water  as  he  properly  deserved.  This  was  the  most 
damning  feature  of  his  indictment,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  he  sold  Culliford  cannon  and  munitions 
and  received  him  in  his  cabin.  On  the  other  hand, 
Kidd  declared  that  he  would  have  attacked  the  pirate 
but  he  was  overpowered  by  his  mutinous  crew  who 
caroused  with  Culliford 's  rogues  and  were  wholly 
out  of  hand.  And  Kidd's  story  is  lent  the  color 
of  truth  by  the  fact  that  ninety-five  of  his  men  de- 
serted to  join  the  Mocha  Frigate  of  Culliford  and 
sail  with  him  under  the  Jolly  Eoger.  It  is  fair  to 
assume  that  if  William  Kidd  had  been  the  success- 
ful pirate  he  is  portrayed,  his  own  rascals  would 
have  stayed  with  him  in  the  Quedah  Merchant  which 
was  a  large  and  splendidly  armed  and  equipped  ship 
of  between  four  and  five  hundred  tons. 

Abandoned  by  two-thirds  of  his  crew,  and  unable 
to  find  trustworthy  men  to  fill  their  places,  Kidd 
was  in  sore  straits  and  decided  to  sail  for  home 
and  square  accounts  with  Bellomont,  trusting  to  his 
powerful  friends  to  keep  him  out  of  trouble.  In  the 
meantime,  the  Great  Mogul  and  the  English  East 
India  Company  had  made  vigorous  complaint  and 
Kidd  was  proclaimed  a  pirate.    The  royal  pardon 


56  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

was  offered  all  pirates  that  should  repent  of  their 
sins,  barring  Kidd  who  was  particularly  excepted 
by  name.  Many  a  villain  whose  hands  were  red 
with  the  slaughter  of  ships'  crews  was  thus  of- 
ficially forgiven,  while  Kidd  who  had  killed  no  man 
barring  that  mutineer,  the  gunner,  William  Moore, 
was  hunted  in  every  sea,  with  a  price  on  his  head. 

On  April  1,  1699,  after  an  absence  of  almost  two 
years,  Kidd  arrived  at  Anguilla,4  his  first  port  of 
call  in  the  West  Indies,  and  went  ashore  to  buy  pro- 
visions. There  he  learned,  to  his  consternation, 
that  he  had  been  officially  declared  a  pirate  and  stood 
in  peril  of  his  life.  The  people  refused  to  have 
any  dealings  with  him,  and  he  sailed  to  St.  Thomas, 
and  thence  to  Curacoa  where  he  was  able  to  get  sup- 
plies through  the  friendship  of  an  English  merchant 
of  Antigua,  Henry  Bolton  by  name,  who  was  not 
hampered  by  scruples  or  fear  of  the  authorities. 
Under  date  of  February  3,  the  Governor  of  Bar- 
badoes  had  written  to  Mr.  Vernon,  Secretary  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Council  of  Trade  and  Plantations  in 
London : 

"I  received  Yours  of  the  23rd.  of  November  in 
relation  to  the  apprehending  your  notorious  Pyrat 
Kidd.  He  has  not  been  heard  of  in  these  Seas  of 
late,  nor  do  I  believe  he  will  think  it  safe  to  venture 
himself  here,  where  his  Villainies  are  so  well  known ; 
but  if  he  does,  all  the  dilligence  and  application  to 
find  him  out  and  seize  him  shall  be  used  on  my  part 
that  can  be,  with  the  assistance  of  a  heavy,  crazy 
Vessell,  miscalled  a  Cruizer,  that  is  ordered  to  at- 
tend upon  me." 

*  Anguilla,  or  Snake  Island,  is  a  small  island  of  the  Leeward 
Group  of  the  West  Indies,  considerably  east  of  Porto  Rico,  and 
near  St.  Martin.     It  belongs  to  England. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION       57 

The  first  news  of  Kidd  was  received  from  the  of- 
ficials of  the  island  of  Nevis  who  wrote  Secretary 
Vernon  on  May  18,  1699,  as  follows: 

Your  letter  of  23rd,  November  last  in  relation  to  that 
notorious  Pirate  Capt.  Kidd  came  safe  to  our  hands  .  .  . 
have  sent  copies  thereof  to  the  Lieut,  or  Deputy  Governor 
of  each  respective  island  under  this  Government:  since 
which  we  have  had  this  following  acct.  of  the  said  Kidd : 

That  he  lately  came  from  Mallagascoe,5  in  a  large  Gen- 
nowese  vessell  of  about  foure  hundred  Tons;  Thirty  Guns 
mounted  and  eighty  men.  And  in  his  way  from  those 
partes-  his  men  mutiny 'd  and  thirty  of  them  lost  their 
lives :  That  his  Vessell  is  very  leaky ;  and  that  several  of 
his  men  have  deserted  him  soe  that  he  has  not  above  five 
and  twenty  or  thirty  hands  on  board.  About  twenty  days 
since  he  landed  at  Anguilla  .  .  .  where  he  tarry 'd 
about  foure  hours ;  but  being  refused  Succour  sailed  thence 
for  the  Island  of  St.  Thomas  .  .  .  and  anchored  off 
that  harbour  three  dayes,  in  which  time  he  treated  with 
them  alsoe  for  relief ;  but  the  Governor  absolutely  Denying 
him,  he  bore  away  further  to  Leeward  (as  tis  believ'd) 
for  Porto  Rico  or  Crabb  Island.  Upon  which  advice  We 
forthwith  ordered  his  Majestie's  Ship  Queensborough,  now 
attending  this  Government,  Capt.  Rupert  Billingsly,  Com- 
mander, to  make  the  best  of  his  way  after  him.  And  in 
case  he  met  with  his  men,  vessell  and  effects,  to  bring 
them  upp  hither. 

That  no  Imbezzlem't  may  be  made,  but  that  they  may 
be  secured  until  we  have  given  you  advice  thereof,  and 
his  Majestie's  pleasure  relating  thereto  can  be  knowne,  we 
shall  by  the  first  conveyance  transmitt  ye  like  account  of 
him  to  the  Governor  of  Jamaica.  So  that  if  he  goes  far- 
ther to  Leeward  due  care  may  be  taken  to  secure  him 
there.  As  for  those  men  who  have  deserted  him,  we  have 
taken  all  possible  care  to  apprehend  them,  especially  if 
they  come  within  the  districts  of  this  Government,  and 

3  Madagascar. 


58    THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

hope  on  return  of  his  Majestie's  frigate  we  shall  be  able 
to  give  you  a  more  ample  acct.  hereof. 
We  are  with  all  due  Respect: 
Rt.  Hon'ble, 

Your  Most  Obedt.  Humble  Servants. 

Kidd  dodged  all  this  hue  and  cry  and  was  mightily 
anxious  to  get  in  touch  with  Bellomont  without  loss 
of  time.  He  bought  at  Curacoa,  through  the  ac- 
commodating Henry  Bolton,  a  Yankee  sloop  called 
the  San  Antonio  and  transferred  his  treasure  and 
part  of  his  crew  to  her.  The  Quedah  Merchant  he 
convoyed  as  far  as  Hispaniola,  now  San  Domingo, 
and  hid  her  in  a  small  harbor  with  considerable 
cargo,  in  charge  of  a  handful  of  his  men  under  di- 
rection of  Bolton. 

Then  warily  and  of  an  uneasy  mind,  Captain  Kidd 
steered  his  sloop  for  the  American  coast  and  first 
touched  at  the  fishing  hamlet  of  Lewes  at  the  mouth 
of  Delaware  Bay.  All  legend  to  the  contrary,  he 
made  no  calls  along  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia  to 
bury  treasure.  The  testimony  of  Kidd's  crew  and 
passengers  cannot  be  demolished  on  this  score,  be- 
sides which  he  expected  to  come  to  terms  with  Bello- 
mont and  adjust  his  affairs  within  the  law,  so  there 
was  no  sane  reason  for  his  stopping  to  hide  his 
valuables. 

The  first  episode  that  smacks  in  the  least  of  buried 
treasure  occurred  while  the  sloop  was  anchored  off 
Lewes.  There  had  come  from  the  East  Indies  as 
a  passenger  one  James  Gillam,  pirate  by  profession, 
and  he  wished  no  dealings  with  the  authorities.  He 
therefore  sent  ashore  in  Delaware  Bay  his  sea  chest 
which  we  may  presume  contained  his  private  store 
of  stolen  gold.  Gillam  and  his  chest  bob  up  in  the 
letters  of  Bellomont,  but  for  the  present  let  this 


CAPTAIN  KIDD  IN  FACT  AND  FICTION       59 

reference  suffice,  as  covered  by  the  statement  of 
Edward  Davis  of  London,  mariner,  made  during  the 
proceedings  against  Kidd  in  Boston: 

That  in  or  about  the  month  of  November,  1697,  the 
Examinant  came  Boatswain  of  the  ship  Fidelia,  Tempest 
Rogers,  Commander,  bound  on  a  trading  voyage  for  India, 
and  in  the  month  of  July  following  arrived  at  the  Island 
of  Madagascar  and  after  having  been  there  about  five 
weeks  the  Ship  sailed  thence  and  left  this  Examinant  in 
the  Island,  and  being  desirous  to  get  off,  enter 'd  himself 
on  board  the  Ship  whereof  Capt.  Kidd  was  Commander 
to  worke  for  his  passage,  and  accordingly  came  with  him 
in  the  sd.  Ship  to  Hispaniola,  and  from  thence  in  the 
Sloop  Antonio  to  this  place. 

And  that  upon  their  arrival  at  the  Hoor  Kills,  in 
Delaware  Bay,  there  was  a  chest  belonging  to  one  James 
Gillam  put  ashore  there  and  at  Gard'ner's  Island,  there 
was  several  chests  and  packages  put  out  of  Capt.  Kidd's 
Sloop  into  a  Sloop  belonging  to  New  Yorke.  He  knows 
not  the  quantity,  nor  anything  sent  on  Shore  at  the  sd. 
Island  nor  doth  he  know  that  anything  was  put  on  Shore 
at  any  Island  or  place  in  this  Country,  only  two  Guns 
of    .     .     .     weight  apeace  or  thereabout  at  Block  Island. 

Signed,         (his  mark) 

Edward  (E*  D.)  Davis. 

In  Delaware  Bay  Kidd  bought  stores,  and  five  of 
the  people  of  Lewes  were  thrown  into  jail  by  the 
Pennsylvania  authorities  for  having  traded  with  him. 
Thence  he  sailed  for  Long  Island  Sound,  entered  it 
from  the  eastward  end,  and  made  for  New  York, 
cautiously  anchoring  in  Oyster  Bay,  nowadays  sed- 
ulously avoided  by  malefactors  of  great  wealth.  It 
was  his  purpose  to  open  negotiations  with  Bello- 
mont  at  long  range,  holding  his  treasure  as  an  in- 
ducement for  a  pardon.    From  Oyster  Bay  he  sent 


60  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

a  letter  to  a  lawyer  in  New  York,  James  Emmot 
who  had  before  then  defended  pirates,  and  also  a 
message  to  his  wife.  Emmot  was  asked  to  serve 
as  a  go-between,  and  he  hastened  to  join  Kidd  on 
the  sloop,  explaining  that  Bellomont  was  in  Boston. 
Thereupon  the  Antonio  weighed  anchor  and  sailed 
westward  as  far  as  Narragansett  Bay  where  Em- 
mot landed  and  went  overland  to  find  Bellomont. 


CHAPTER   III 

CAPTAIN"    KIDD,   HIS   TKEASURE  * 

''You  captains  brave  and  bold,  hear  our  cries,  hear  our 

cries, 
You  captains  brave  and  bold,  hear  our  cries. 
You  captains  brave  and  bold,  though  you  seem  uncontrolled, 
Don't  for  the  sake  of  gold  lose  your  souls,  lose  your  souls, 
Don't  for  the  sake  of  gold  lose  your  souls." 

{From  the  old  Kidd  ballad.) 

The  negotiations  between  Kidd  and  the  Earl  of 
Bellomont  were  no  more  creditable  to  the  royal 
governor  than  to  the  alleged  pirate.  Already  the 
noble  partners  in  England  were  bombarded  with 
awkward  questions  concerning  the  luckless  enter- 
prise, and  Bellomont,  anxious  to  clear  himself  and 
his  friends,  was  for  getting  hold  of  Kidd  and  putting 
him  in  Boston  jail  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 
He  dared  not  reveal  the  true  status  of  affairs  to 
Kidd  by  means  of  correspondence  lest  that  wary 
bird  escape  him,  and  he  therefore  tried  to  coax  him 
nearer  in  a  letter  sent  back  in  care  of  Emmot,  that 
experienced  legal  adviser  of  pirates  in  distress. 
This  letter  of  Bellomont  was  dated  June  19,  1699, 
and  had  this  to  say : 

iMr.  F.  L.  Gay  of  Boston  very  kindly  gave  the  author  the  use 
of  his  valuable  collection  of  documentary  material  concerning  Cap- 
tain Kidd,  some  of  which  is  contained  in  this  chapter.  In  addition, 
the  author  consulted  many  of  the  original  documents  among  the 
state  papers  in  the  Public  Record  Office,  London. 

61 


62  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Captain  Kidd: 

Mr.  Emmot  came  to  me  last  Tuesday  night  late,  telling 
me  he  came  from  you,  but  was  shy  of  telling  me  where 
he  parted  with  you,  nor  did  I  press  him  to  it.  He  told 
me  you  came  to  Oyster  Bay  in  Nassau  Island  and  sent 
for  him  to  New  York.  He  proposed  to  me  from  you  that 
I  would  grant  you  a  pardon.  I  answered  that  I  had  never 
granted  one  yet,  and  that  I  had  set  myself  a  safe  rule  not 
to  grant  a  pardon  to  anybody  whatsoever  without  the 
King's  express  leave  or  command.  He  told  me  you  de- 
clared and  protested  your  innocence,  and  that  if  your  men 
could  be  persuaded  to  follow  your  example,  you  would 
make  no  manner  of  scruple  of  coming  to  this  port  or  any 
other  within  her  Majestie's  Dominions;  that  you  owned 
there  were  two  ships  taken  but  that  your  men  did  it  vio- 
lently against  your  will  and  had  us'd  you  barbarously 
in  imprisoning  you  and  treating  you  ill  most  part  of  the 
Voyage,  and  often  attempting  to  murder  you. 

Mr.  Emmot  delivered  me  two  French  passes  taken  on 
board  the  two  ships  which  your  men  rifled,  which  passes 
I  have  in  my  custody  and  I  am  apt  to  believe  they  will 
be  a  good  Article  to  justifie  you  if  the  peace  were  not, 
by  the  Treaty  between  England  and  France,  to  operate 
in  that  part  of  the  world  at  the  time  the  hostility  was 
committed,  as  I  almost  confident  it  was  not  to  do!  Mr. 
Emmot  also  told  me  that  you  had  to  about  the  value  of 
10,000  pounds  in  the  Sloop  with  you,  and  that  you  had 
left  a  Ship  somewhere  off  the  coast  of  Hispaniola  in  which 
there  was  to  the  Value  of  30,000  pounds  more  which  you 
had  left  in  safe  hands  and  had  promised  to  go  to  your 
people  in  that  Ship  within  three  months  to  fetch  them 
with  you  to  a  safe  harbour. 

These  are  all  the  material  particulars  I  can  recollect 
that  passed  between  Mr.  Emmot  and  me,  only  this,  that  you 
showed  a  great  sense  of  Honour  and  Justice  in  professing 
with  many  asseverations  your  settled  and  serious  design  all 
along  to  do  honor  to  your  Commission  and  never  to  do 
the  least  thing  contrary  to  your  duty  and  allegiance  to  the 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  63 

King.  And  this  I  have  to  say  in  your  defense  that  several 
persons  at  New  York  who  I  can  bring  to  evidence  it,  if 
there  be  occasion,  did  tell  me  that  by  several  advices  from 
Madagascar  and  that  part  of  the  world,  they  were  in- 
formed of  your  men  revolting  from  you  in  one  place, 
which  I  am  pretty  sure  they  said  was  at  Madagascar;  and 
that  others  of  them  compelled  you  much  against  your  will 
to  take  and  rifle  two  Ships. 

I  have  advised  with  his  Majesty's  Council  and  showed 
them  this  letter  this  afternoon,  and  they  are  of  opinion 
that  if  your  case  be  so  clear  as  you  (or  Mr.  Emmot  for 
you)  have  said,  that  you  may  safely  come  hither,  and  be 
equipped  and  fitted  out  to  go  and  fetch  the  other  Ship, 
and  I  make  no  manner  of  doubt  but  to  obtain  the  King's 
pardon  for  you  and  those  few  men  you  have  left,  who 
I  understand  have  been  faithful  to  you  and  refused  as 
well  as  you  to  dishonor  the  Commission  you  had  from 
England. 

I  assure  you  on  my  word  and  on  my  honor  I  will  per- 
forme  nicely  what  I  have  now  promised,  tho'  this  I  declare 
before  hand  that  whatever  treasure  of  goods  you  bring 
hither,  I  will  not  meddle  with  the  least  bit  of  them,  but 
they  shall  be  left  with  such  trusty  persons  as  the  Council 
will  advise  until  I  receive  orders  from  England  how  they 
shall  be  disposed  of.  Mr.  Campbell  will  satisfie  you  that 
this  that  I  have  now  written  is  the  Sense  of  the  Council 
and  of 

Your  Humble  Servant. 

(Not  signed  but  endorsed,  "A  true  copy,  Bellomont. ") 

These  were  fair  words  but  not  as  sincere  as  might 
have  been.  Governor  Bellomont  was  anxious  to  lay 
hands  on  Kidd  by  fair  means  or  foul,  and  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  events  this  letter  appears  as  a 
disingenuous  decoy.  It  was  carried  back  to  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  by  Emmot,  and  with  him  Bellomont 
sent  one  Duncan  Campbell,  postmaster  of  Boston, 


64  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

as  an  authorized  agent  to  advance  the  negotiations. 
Campbell  was  a  Scotchman  who  had  been  a  friend  of 
Kidd.  He  is  mentioned  in  John  Dunton's  ''Letter 
"Written  from  New  England,  A.  D.  1686." 

"j  rambled  to  the  Scotch  book-seller,  one  Camp- 
bell. He  is  a  brisk  young  fellow  that  dresses  All-a- 
mode,  and  sets  himself  off  to  the  best  Advantage, 
and  yet  thrives  apace.  I  am  told  (and  for  his  sake 
I  wish  it  may  be  true)  that  a  Young  Lady  of  Great 
Fortune  has  married  him." 

In  reply  to  Bellomont's  letter,  thus  delivered,  Cap- 
tain Kidd  replied  as  follows : 

From  Block  Island  Road,  on  Board  the  Sloop  St. 
Antonio, 

June  24th,  1699. 
May  It  please  your  Excellencie: 

I  am  hon'rd  with  your  Lordship's  kind  letter  of  ye 
19th.,  Current  by  Mr.  Campbell  which  came  to  my  hands 
this  day,  for  which  I  return  my  most  hearty  thanks.  I 
cannot  but  blame  myself  for  not  writing  to  your  Lordship 
before  this  time,  knowing  it  was  my  duty,  but  the  clam- 
orous and  false  stories  that  has  been  reported  of  me  made 
me  fearful  of  writing  or  coming  into  any  harbor  till  I 
could  hear  from  your  Lordship.  I  note  the  contents  of 
your  Lordship's  letter  as  to  what  Mr.  Emmot  and  Mr. 
Campbell  Informed  your  Lordship  of  my  proceedings.  I 
do  affirm  it  to  be  true,  and  a  great  deal  more  may  be 
said  of  the  abuses  of  my  men  and  the  hardships  I  have 
undergone  to  preserve  the  Ship  and  what  goods  my  men 
had  left.  Ninety-five  men  went  away  from  me  in  one 
day  and  went  on  board  the  Moca  Frigott,  Captain  Robert 
Cullifer,  Commander,  who  went  away  to  the  Red  Seas 
and  committed  several  acts  of  pyracy  as  I  am  informed, 
and  am  afraid  that  because  of  the  men  formerly  belong- 
ing to  my  Galley,  the  report  is  gone  home  against  me  to 
the  East  India  Companee. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  65 

A  Sheet  of  paper  will  not  contain  what  may  be  said 
of  the  care  I  took  to  preserve  the  Owners'  interest  and 
to  come  home  to  clear  up  my  own  Innocency.  I  do  fur- 
ther declare  and  protest  that  I  never  did  in  the  least  act 
Contrary  to  the  King's  Commission,  nor  to  the  Reputa- 
tion of  my  honorable  Owners,  and  doubt  not  but  I  shall 
be  able  to  make  my  Innocency  appear,  or  else  I  had  no 
need  to  come  to  these  parts  of  the  world,  if  it  were  not 
for  that,  and  my  owners'  Interest. 

There  is  five  or  six  passengers  that  came  from  Madagas- 
car to  assist  me  in  bringing  the  Ship  home,  and  about 
ten  of  my  own  men  that  came  with  me  would  not  venture 
to  go  into  Boston  till  Mr.  Campbell  had  Ingaged  body 
for  body  for  them  that  they  should  not  be  molested  while 
I  staid  at  Boston,  or  till  I  returned  with  the  ship.  I  doubt 
not  but  your  Lordship  will  write  to  England  in  my  favor 
and  for  these  few  men  that  are  left.  I  wish  your  Lord- 
ship would  persuade  Mr.  Campbell  to  go  home  to  Eng- 
land with  your  Lordship 's  letters,  who  will  be  able  to  give 
account  of  our  affairs  and  diligently  forward  the  same 
that  there  may  be  speedy  answer  from  England. 

I  desired  Mr.  Campbell  to  buy  a  thousand  weight  of 
rigging  for  the  fitting  of  the  Ship,  to  bring  her  to  Boston, 
that  I  may  not  be  delay 'd  when  I  come  there.  Upon  re- 
ceiving your  Lordship's  letter  I  am  making  the  best  of 
my  way  for  Boston.  This  with  my  humble  duty  to  your 
Lordship  and  the  Countess  is  what  offers  from, 
My  Lord,  Your  Excellency's 
Most  humble  and  dutyfull  Servant, 

Wm.  Kidd. 

Notwithstanding  these  expressions  of  confidence, 
Kidd  suspected  Bellomont's  intentions  and  decided  to 
leave  his  treasure  in  safe  hands  instead  of  carrying 
it  to  Boston  with  him.  Now  follows  the  documentary 
narrative  of  the  only  authenticated  buried  treasure 
of  Captain  Kidd  and  the  proofs  that  he  had  no  other 


66  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

booty  of  any  account.  At  the  eastern  end  of  Long 
Island  Sound  is  a  beautiful  wooded  island  of  three 
thousand  acres  which  has  been  owned  by  the  Gardi- 
ner family  as  a  manor  since  the  first  of  them,  Lionel 
Gardiner,  obtained  a  royal  grant  almost  three  cen- 
turies ago.  In  June  of  1699,  John  Gardiner,  third 
of  the  line  of  proprietors,  sighted  a  strange  sloop 
anchored  in  his  island  harbor,  and  rowed  out  to  make 
the  acquaintance  of  Captain  William  Kidd  who  had 
crossed  from  Narragansett  Bay  in  the  San  Antonio. 
What  happened  between  them  and  how  the  treasure 
was  buried  and  dug  up  is  told  in  the  official  testimony 
of  John  Gardiner,  dated  July  17th,  1699. 

"the  narrative  of  john  gard(i)ner  op  gard(i)ner  is- 
land, ALIAS  ISLE  OP  WIGHT,  RELATING  TO  CAPTAIN  WILLIAM 
KIDD. 

That  about  twenty  days  ago  Mr.  Emmot  of  New  York 
came  to  the  Narrator's  house  and  desired  a  boat  to  go  to 
New  York,  telling  the  Narrator  he  came  from  my  Lord  at 
Boston,  whereupon  the  Narrator  furnished  Mr.  Emmot  with 
a  boat  and  he  went  for  New  York.  And  that  evening  the 
Narrator  saw  a  Sloop  with  six  guns  riding  an  Anchor  off 
Gardiner's  Island  and  two  days  afterwards  in  the  evening 
the  Narrator  went  on  board  said  Sloop  to  enquire  what 
she  was. 

And  so  soon  as  he  came  on  board,  Capt.  Kidd  (then 
unknown  to  the  Narrator)  asked  him  how  himself  and 
family  did,  telling  him  that  he,  the  said  Kidd,  was  going 
to  my  Lord  at  Boston,  and  desired  the  Narrator  to  carry 
three  Negroes,  two  boys  and  a  girl  ashore  to  keep  till  he, 
the  said  Kidd,  or  his  order  should  call  for  them,  which 
the  Narrator  accordingly  did. 

That  about  two  hours  after  the  Narrator  had  got  the 
said  Negroes  ashore,  Capt.  Kidd  sent  his  boat  ashore  with 
two  bales  of  goods  and  a  Negro  boy;  and  the  morning 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  67 

after,  the  said  Kidd  desired  the  Narrator  to  come  imme- 
diately on  board  and  bring  six  Sheep  with  him  for  his 
voyage  for  Boston,  which  the  Narrator  did.  Kidd  asked 
him  to  spare  a  barrel  of  Cyder,  which  the  Narrator  with 
great  importunity  consented  to,  and  sent  two  of  his  men 
for  it,  who  brought  the  Cyder  on  board  said  Sloop.  Whilst 
the  men  were  gone  for  the  Cyder,  Capt.  Kidd  offered  the 
Narrator  several  pieces  of  damnified  2  Muslin  and  Bengali 
as  a  present  to  his  Wife,  which  the  said  Kidd  put  in  a 
bagg  and  gave  the  Narrator.  And  about  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  afterwards  the  said  Kidd  took  up  two  or  three  (more) 
pieces  of  damnified  Muslin  and  gave  the  Narrator  for  his 
proper  use. 

And  the  Narrator's  men  then  coming  on  board  with 
the  said  barrel  of  Cyder  as  aforesaid,  Kidd  gave  them  a 
piece  of  Arabian  gold  for  their  trouble  and  also  for  bring- 
ing him  word.  Then  the  said  Kidd,  ready  to  sail,  told 
this  Narrator  he  would  pay  him  for  the  Cyder,  to  which 
the  Narrator  answered  that  he  was  already  satisfied  for 
it  by  the  Present  made  to  his  wife.  And  it  was  observed 
that  some  of  Kidd's  men  gave  to  the  Narrator's  men  some 
inconsiderable  things  of  small  value  which  were  Muslins 
for  neck-cloths. 

And  then  the  Narrator  tooke  leave  of  the  said  Kidd  and 
went  ashore  and  at  parting  the  said  Kidd  fired  four  guns 
and  stood  for  Block  Island.  About  three  days  afterwards, 
said  Kidd  sent  the  Master  of  the  Sloop  and  one  Clark  in 
his  boat  for  the  Narrator  who  went  on  board  with  them, 
and  the  said  Kidd  desired  him  to  take  ashore  with  him 
and  keep  for  him  a  Chest  and  a  box  of  Gold  and  a  bundle 
of  Quilts  and  four  bales  of  Goods,  which  box  of  Gold 
the  said  Kidd  told  the  Narrator  was  intended  for  my 
Lord.  And  the  Narrator  complied  with  the  request  and 
took  on  Shore  the  said  Chest,  box  of  Gold,  quilts  and  bales 
of  goods. 

And  the  Narrator  further  saith  that  two  of  Kidd's  crew 

2  Damaged. 


68  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

who  went  by  the  names  of  Cooke  and  Parrat  delivered 
to  him,  the  Narrator,  two  baggs  of  Silver  which  they  said 
weighed  thirty  pound  weight,  for  which  he  gave  receipt. 
And  that  another  of  Kidd's  men  delivered  to  the  Nar- 
rator a  small  bundle  of  gold  and  gold  dust  of  about  a 
pound  weight  to  keep  for  him,  and  did  present  the  Nar- 
rator with  a  sash  and  a  pair  of  wortsed  stockins.  And 
just  before  the  Sloop  sailed,  Capt.  Kidd  presented  the 
Narrator  with  a  bagg  of  Sugar,  and  then  took  leave  and 
sailed  for  Boston. 

And  the  Narrator  further  saith  he  knew  nothing  of 
Kidd's  being  proclaimed  a  Pyrate,  and  if  he  had,  he 
durst  not  have  acted  otherwise  than  he  had  done,  having 
no  force  to  oppose  them  and  for  that  he  hath  formerly 
been  threatened  to  be  killed  by  Privateers  if  he  should 
carry  unkindly  to  them. 

The  within  named  Narrator  further  saith  that  while 
Capt.  Kidd  lay  with  his  Sloop  at  Gardner's  Island,  there 
was  a  New  York  Sloop  whereof  one  Coster  is  master,  and 
his  mate  was  a  little  black  man,  unknown  by  name,  who 
as  it  is  was  said,  had  been  formerly  Capt.  Kidd's  quarter- 
master, and  another  Sloop  belonging  to  New  Yorke,  Jacob 
Fenick,  Master,  both  which  lay  near  to  Kidd's  Sloop  three 
days  together.  And  whilst  the  Narrator  was  on  board 
with  Capt.  Kidd,  there  was  several  bales  of  Goods  put  on 
board  the  other  two  Sloops  aforesaid,  and  the  said  two 
Sloops  sailed  up  the  Sound.  After  which  Kidd  sailed  with 
his  sloop  for  Block  Island;  and  being  absent  by  the  space 
of  three  days,  returned  to  Gardner's  Island  again  in  Com- 
pany of  another  Sloop  belonging  to  New  York,  Cornelius 
Quick,  Master,  on  board  of  which  were  one  Thomas  Clarke 
of  Setauket,  commonly  called  Whisking  Clarke,  and  one 
Harrison  of  Jamaica,  father  to  a  boy  that  was  with  Capt. 
Kidd,  and  Capt.  Kidd's  Wife  was  then  on  board  his  own 
Sloop. 

And  Quick  remained  with  his  Sloop  there  from  noon 
to  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  and  took  on  board  two 
Chests  that  came  out  of  Kidd's  Sloop,  under  the  observance 


i\  (fcXtj) 


Li 


John  Gardiner's  sworn  statement  of  the  goods  and  treasure  left 
with  him  by  Kidd. 


Governor  Bellomont's  endorsement  of  the  official  inventory 
of   Kidd's   treasure  found  on  Gardiner's   Island. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  69 

of  this  Narrator,  and  he  believes  several  Goods  more  and 
then  Sailed  up  the  Sound.  Kidd  remained  there  with 
his  Sloop  until  next  morning,  and  then  set  sail  intending, 
as  he  said,  for  Boston.  Further  the  Narrator  saith  that 
the  next  day  after  Quick  sailed  with  his  Sloop  from 
Gardner's  Island  he  saw  him  turning  out  of  a  Bay  called 
Oyster  Pan  Bay,  altho'  the  wind  was  all  the  time  fair 
to  carry  him  up  the  Sound.  The  Narrator  supposes  he 
went  in  thither  to  land  some  Goods. 

John  Gardiner. 
Boston,  July  17th,  1699. 

The  Narrator,  John  Gardiner,  under  Oath  before  his 
Excellency  and  Council  unto  the  truth  of  his  Narrative 
in  this  sheet  of  paper. 

Addington,  Sec'ry." 

This  artless  recital  has  every  earmark  of  truth, 
and  it  was  confirmed  in  detail  by  other  witnesses  and 
later  events.  Before  we  fall  to  digging  up  the  treas- 
ure of  Gardiner's  Island,  carried  ashore  in  the 
''Chest  and  box  of  Gold,"  it  is  well  to  follow  those 
other  goods  which  were  carried  away  in  the  sloops 
about  which  so  much  has  been  said  by  John  Gardi- 
ner. No  more  is  heard  of  that  alluring  figure,  ' '  the 
little  black  man,  unknown  by  name,  who  as  it  was 
said  had  been  formerly  Capt.  Kidd's  Quarter-Mas- 
ter," but  "Whisking"  Clarke  was  duly  overhauled. 
All  of  the  plunder  transferred  from  Kidd's  sloop  to 
those  other  craft  was  consigned  to  him,  and  some  of 
it  was  put  ashore  at  Stamford,  Conn.,  in  charge  of 
a  Major  Sellick  who  had  a  warehouse  hard  by  the 
Sound.  Clarke  was  arrested  by  order  of  Bellomont 
and  gave  a  bond  of  £12,000  that  he  would  deliver 
up  all  to  the  government.  This  he  did,  without 
doubt,  but  legend  has  been  busy  with  this  enterprise 
ing  "Whisking"  Clarke. 


70  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

In  the  Connecticut  Eiver  off  the  "  upper  end  of 
Pine  Meadow,"  near  Northfield,  Mass.,  is  Clarke's 
Island  which  was  granted  by  the  town  to  William 
Clarke  in  1686,  and  confirmed  to  his  heirs  in  1723. 
It  then  contained  ten  and  three-fourth  acres,  and  was 
a  secluded  spot,  well  covered  with  trees.  Later, 
what  with  cutting  off  the  woods  and  the  work  of  the 
freshets,  a  large  part  of  the  island  was  washed  away. 
It  was  here,  tradition  has  it,  that  some  of  Kidd's 
treasure  was  hidden  by  "  Whisking"  Clarke. 

The  local  story  is  that  Kidd  and  his  men  ascended 
the  river,  though  how  they  got  over  the  series  of 
falls  is  not  explained,  and  made  a  landing  at  Clarke 's 
Island.  Here,  having  placed  the  chest  in  a  hole, 
they  sacrificed  by  lot  one  of  their  number  and  laid 
his  body  on  top  of  the  treasure  in  order  that  his 
ghost  might  forever  defend  it  from  fortune-seekers. 
One  Abner  Field,  after  consulting  a  conjurer  who 
showed  him  precisely  where  the  chest  was  buried, 
resolved  to  risk  a  tussle  with  the  pirate's  ghost,  and 
with  two  friends  waited  in  fear  and  trembling  for  the 
auspicious  time  when  the  moon  should  be  directly 
overhead  at  midnight. 

They  were  to  work  in  silence,  and  to  pray  that 
no  cock  should  crow  within  earshot  and  break  the 
spell.  At  length,  one  of  them  raised  his  crow-bar 
for  a  mighty  stroke,  down  it  went,  and  clinked 
against  metal.  "You've  hit  it,"  cried  another,  and, 
alas,  instantly  the  chest  sank  out  of  reach,  and  the 
ghost  appeared,  and  very  angry  it  was.  A  moment 
later,  the  devil  himself  popped  from  under  the  bank, 
ripped  across  the  island  like  a  tornado  and  plunged 
into  the  river  with  a  prodigious,  hissing  splash. 
The  treasure  hunters  flew  for  home,  and  told  their 
tale,  but  village  rumor  whispered  it  about  that  one. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  71 

Oliver  Smith  and  a  confederate  had  impersonated 
the  ghost  and  the  energetic  Evil  One. 

On  October  20,  1699,  Bellomont  wrote  in  a  letter 
to  England: 

"I  have  prevailed  with  Governor  Winthrop  of 
Connecticut  to  seize  and  send  Thomas  Clarke  of  N. 
York  prisoner  hither.  He  has  been  on  board  Kidd's 
sloop  at  the  east  end  of  Long  Island  and  carried  off 
to  the  value  of  about  5000  pounds  in  goods  and 
treasure  (that  we  know  of  and  perhaps  a  great  deal 
more)  into  Connecticut  Colony;  and  thinking  him- 
self safe  from  under  our  power,  writ  my  Lt.  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York  a  very  saucy  letter  and  bade  us 
defiance.  I  have  ordered  him  to  be  safely  kept  pris- 
oner in  the  fort,  because  the  gaol  of  New  York  is 
weak  and  insufficient.  And  when  orders  come  to 
me  to  send  Kidd  and  his  men  to  England  (which 
I  long  for  impatiently),  I  will  also  send  Clarke  3  as 
an  associate  of  Kidd." 

Three  days  later,  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
New  York  wrote  Bellomont  as  follows : 

"Clarke  proffers  12,000  pounds  good  Security 
and  will  on  oath  deliver  up  all  the  goods  he  hath 
been  entrusted  with  from  Kidd,  provided  he  may 
go  and  fetch  them  himself,  but  says  he  will  rather 
die  or  be  undone  than  to  bring  his  friends  into  a 
Predicament.  I  told  him  if  he  would  let  me  know 
where  I  might  secure  these  goods  or  Bullion,  I 
would  recommend  his  case  to  your  Lordship's  fa- 
vour. He  answered  'twas  impossible  to  recover 
anything  until  he  went  himself." 

8  Clarke  managed  to  clear  himself  and  this  threat  was  not  carried 
out. 


72     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

After  leaving  the  bulk  of  his  treasure  on  Gardi- 
ner's Island,  Kidd  received  another  friendly  mes- 
sage from  Lord  Bellomont,  and  was  by  now  per- 
suaded that  he  could  go  to  Boston  without  danger. 
With  his  wife  on  board  his  sloop,  and  she  stood  by 
him  staunchly,  he  laid  a  course  around  Cape  Cod  and 
made  port  on  the  first  day  of  July.  Captain  and  Mrs. 
William  Kidd  found  lodgings  in  the  house  of  their 
friend,  Duncan  Campbell,  and  he  walked  unmo- 
lested for  a  week,  passing  some  of  the  time  in  the 
Blue  Anchor  tavern.  " Being  a  very  resolute  fel- 
low," wrote  Hutchinson,  "when  the  officer  arrested 
him  in  his  lodgings,  he  attempted  to  draw  his  sword, 
but  a  young  gentleman  who  accompanied  the  officer, 
laying  hold  of  his  arm,  prevented  him  and  he  sub- 
mitted. ' ' 

In  the  letters  of  Lord  Bellomont  to  the  Lords  of 
Plantations  and  Colonies  are  fully  related  the  par- 
ticulars of  Kidd's  downfall  and  of  the  finding  of  his 
treasure.     On  July  26th,  he  stated : 

"My  Lords: 

"I  gave  your  Lordships  a  short  account  of  my 
taking  Capt.  Kidd  in  my  letter  of  the  8th.  Inst.  I 
shall  in  this  letter  confine  myself  wholly  to  an  ac- 
count of  my  proceedings  with  him.  On  the  13th,  of 
last  month  Mr.  Emmot,  a  lawyer  of  N.  York  came  to 
me  late  at  night  and  told  me  he  came  from  Capt. 
Kidd  who  was  on  the  Coast  with  a  Sloop,  but  would 
not  tell  me  where ;  that  Kidd  had  brought  60  pounds 
weight  of  gold,  about  100  weight  of  silver,  and  17 
bales  of  East  India  goods  (which  was  less  by  24 
bales  than  we  have  since  got  out  of  the  sloop).  That 
Kidd  had  left  behind  him  a  great  Ship  near  the  coast 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  73 

of  Hispaniola  that  nobody  but  himself  could  find  out, 
on  board  whereof  there  were  in  bale  goods,  saltpetre, 
and  other  things  to  the  value  of  at  least  30,000 
pounds.  That  if  I  would  give  him  a  pardon,  he 
would  bring  in  the  sloop  and  goods  hither  and  fetch 
his  great  ship  and  goods  afterwards. 

"Mr.  Emmot  delivered  me  that  night  two  French 
passes  which  Kidd  took  on  board  the  two  Moors' 
ships  which  were  taken  by  him  in  the  seas  of  India 
(or  as  he  alleged  by  his  men  against  his  will).  One 
of  the  passes  wants  a  date  in  the  original  as  in  the 
copy  I  sent  your  Lordships,  and  they  go  (No.  1)  and 
(No.  2).  On  the  said  19th.  of  June  as  I  sat  in  Coun- 
cil I  wrote  a  letter  to  Capt.  Kidd  and  showed  it  to 
the  Council,  and  they  approving  of  it  I  despatched 
Mr.  Campbell  again  to  Kidd  with  my  said  letter,  a 
copy  whereof  goes  (No.  4).  Your  Lordships  may 
observe  that  the  promise  I  made  Capt.  Kidd  in  my 
said  letter  of  a  kind  reception  and  procuring  the 
King's  pardon  for  him,  is  conditional,  that  is,  pro- 
vided he  were  as  Innocent  as  he  pretended  to  be. 
But  I  quickly  found  sufficient  cause  to  suspect  him 
very  guilty,  by  the  many  lies  and  contradictions  he 
told  me. 

"I  was  so  much  upon  my  guard  with  Kidd  that  he 
arriving  here  on  Saturday  of  this  month,  I  would 
not  see  him  but  before  witnesses;  nor  have  I  ever 
seen  him  but  in  Council  twice  or  thrice  that  we  ex- 
amined him,  and  the  day  he  was  taken  up  by  the  Con- 
stable. It  happened  to  be  by  the  door  of  my  Lodg- 
ing, and  he  rush'd  in  and  came  rushing  to  me,  the 
Constable  after  him.  I  had  him  not  seiz'd  till 
Thursday,  the  6th  Inst,  for  I  had  a  mind  to  discover 
where  he  had  left  the  great  Ship,  and  I  thought  my- 
self secure  enough  from  his  running  away  because 


74  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

I  took  care  not  to  give  him  the  least  umbrage  or 
design  of  seizing  him.  Nor  had  I  till  that  day  (that 
I  produced  my  orders  from  Court  for  apprehend- 
ing) communicated  them  to  anybody  and  I  found  it 
necessary  to  show  my  order  to  the  Council  to  ani- 
mate them  to  join  heartily  with  me  in  securing  Kidd 
and  examining  his  affairs  nicely,4  .  .  .  discover 
what  we  could  of  his  behaviour  in  his  whole  voyage. 
Another  reason  why  I  took  him  up  no  sooner  was 
that  he  had  brought  his  wife  and  children  hither  in 
his  Sloop  with  him  who  I  believ'd  he  would  not  easily 
forsake. 

' '  He  being  examined  twice  or  thrice  by  me  and  the 
Council,  and  also  some  of  his  men,  I  observ'd  he 
seemed  much  disturb 'd,  and  the  last  time  we  exam- 
ined him  I  fancied  he  looked  as  if  he  were  upon  the 
wing  and  resolved  to  run  away.  And  the  Gentle- 
men of  the  Council  had  some  of  them  the  same 
thought  with  mine,  so  that  I  took  their  consent  in 
seizing  and  committing  him.  But  the  officers  ap- 
pointed to  seize  his  men  were  so  careless  as  to  let 
three  or  four  of  his  men  escape  which  troubled  me 
the  more  because  they  were  old  N.  York  Pyrates. 
The  next  thing  the  Council  and  I  did  was  to  appoint 
a  Committee  of  trusty  persons  to  search  for  the  goods 
and  treasure  brought  by  Kidd  and  to  secure  what 
they  should  find  till  the  King's  pleasure  should  be 
known  as  to  the  disposition  thereof,  as  my  orders 
from  Mr.  Secretary  Vernon  import.  The  said  Com- 
mittee were  made  up  of  two  Gentlemen  of  the  Coun- 
cil, two  merchants,  and  the  Deputy  Collector,  whose 
names  are  to  the  enclosed  Inventory  of  the  goods 
and  treasure. 

"They  search 'd  Kidd's  lodgings  and  found  hid  and 

*Ms.  torn. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  75 

made  up  in  two  sea  beds  a  bag  of  gold  dust  and  In- 
gots of  the  value  of  about  1000  pounds  and  a  bag  of 
silver,  part  money  and  part  pieces  and  piggs  of  sil- 
ver, value  as  set  down  in  the  said  Inventory.  In 
the  above  bag  of  gold  were  several  little  bags  of 
gold ;  all  particulars  are  very  justly  and  exactly  set 
down  in  the  Inventory.  For  my  part  I  have  med- 
dled with  no  matter  of  thing  under  the  management 
of  the  Council,  and  into  the  Custody  of  the  aforemen- 
tioned Committee,  that  I  might  be  free  from  the  sus- 
picion and  censure  of  the  world. 

"The  enamel'd  box  mentioned  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Inventory  is  that  which  Kidd  made  a  present  of 
to  my  wife  by  Mr.  Campbell,  which  I  deliver 'd  in 
Council  to  the  said  Committee  to  keep  with  the  rest 
of  the  treasure.  There  was  in  it  a  stone  ring  which 
we  take  to  be  a  Bristol  stone.  If  it  was  true5  it 
would  be  worth  about  40  pounds,  and  there  was  a 
small  stone  unset  which  we  believe  is  also  counter- 
feit, and  a  sort  of  a  Locket  with  four  sparks  which 
seem  to  be  right  diamonds:  for  there's  nobody  that 
understands  Jewels  6  .  .  .  box  and  all  that 's  in 
it  were  right,  they  cannot  be  worth  above  60  pounds. 

"Your  Lordships  will  see  in  the  middle  of  the  In- 
ventory a  parcel  of  treasure  and  Jewels  delivered 
up  by  Mr.  Gardiner  of  Gardiner's  Island  in  the 
province  of  New  York  and  at  the  East  end  of  Nas- 
sau Island,  the  recovery  and  saving  of  which  treas- 
ure is  owing  to  my  own  care  and  quickness.  I  heard 
by  the  greatest  accident  in  the  world  the  day  Capt. 
Kidd  was  committed,  that  a  man 6  .  .  .  offered 
30  pounds  for  a  sloop  to  carry  him  to  Gardiner's 
Island,  and  Kidd  having  owned  to  burying  some 
gold  on  that  Island  (though  he  never  mentioned  to 

5  Genuine.  «  Ms.  torn. 


76  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

us  any  jewels  nor  do  I  believe  he  would  have  own'd 
to  the  gold  there  but  that  he  thought  he  should  him- 
self be  sent  for  it),  I  privately  posted  away  a  mes- 
senger to  Mr.  Gardiner  in  the  King's  name  to  come 
forthwith  and  deliver  up  such  treasure  as  Kidd  or 
any  of  his  crew  had  lodg'd  with  him,  acquainting 
him  that  I  had  committed  Kidd  to  Gaol  as  I  was  or- 
dered to  do  by  the  King. 

"My  messenger  made  great  haste  and  was  with 
Gardiner  before  anybody,  and  Gardiner,  who  is  a 
very  substantial  man,  brought  away  the  treasure 
without  delay;  and  by  my  direction  deliver 'd  it  into 
the  hands  of  the  Committee.  If  the  Jewels  be  right, 
as  'tis  suppos'd  they  are,  but  I  never  saw  them  nor 
the  gold  and  silver  brought  by  Gardiner,  then  we 
guess  that  the  parcel  brought  by  him  may  be  worth 
(gold,  silver,  and  Jewels)  4500  pounds.  And  be- 
sides Kidd  had  left  six  bales  of  goods  with  him,  one 
of  which  was  twice  as  big  as  any  of  the  rest,  and 
Kidd  gave  him  a  particular  charge  of  that  bale  and 
told  him  'twas  worth  2000  pounds.  The  six  bales 
Gardiner  could  not  bring,  but  I  have  ordered  him 
to  send  'em  by  a  Sloop  that  is  since  gone  from  hence 
to  N.  York,  and  which  is  to  return  speedily. 

"We  are  not  able  to  set  an  exact  value  on  the  goods 
and  treasure  we  have  got  because  we  have  not  open'd 
the  bales  we  took  on  board  the  (Kidd's)  sloop,  but 
we  hope  when  the  six  bales  are  sent  in  by  Gardiner, 
what  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Gentlemen  appointed 
to  that  trust  will  amount  to  about  14,000  pounds. 

"I  have  sent  strict  orders  to  my  Lt.  Governor  at 
N.  York  to  make  diligent  search  for  the  goods  and 
treasure  sent  by  Kidd  to  N.  York  in  three  Sloops 
mentioned  in  Gardiner's  affidavit.7     ...    I  have 

7  Ms.  torn. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  77 

directed  him  where  to  find  a  purchase  8  in  a  house  in 
N.  York  which  I  am  apt  to  believe  will  be  found  in 
that  house.  I  have  sent  to  search  elsewhere  a  cer- 
tain place  strongly  suspected  to  have  received  an- 
other deposition  of  gold  from  Kidd. 

"I  am  also  upon  the  hunt  after  two  or  three  Arch- 
Pyrates  which  I  hope  to  give  your  Lordships  a  good 
account  of  by  the  next  conveyance.  If  I  could  have 
but  a  good  able  Judge  and  Attorney  General  at 
N.  York,  a  man-of-war  there  and  another  here,  and 
the  companies  recruited  and  well  paid,  I  will  rout 
Pyrates  and  pyracy  entirely  out  of  this  North  part 
of  America,  but  as  I  have  too  often  told  your  Lord- 
ships 'tis  impossible  for  me  to  do  all  this  alone 
in  my  single  person. 

"I  wrote  your  Lordships  in  my  last  letter  of  the 
8th.  Inst,  that  Bradish,  the  Pyrate,  and  one  of  his 
crew  were  escap'd  out  of  the  gaol  in  this  town. 
We  have  since  found  that  the  Gaoler  was  Bradish 's 
kinsman,  and  the  Gaoler  confess 'd  they  went  out 
at  the  prison  door  and  that  he  found  it  wide  open. 
We  had  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to  believe  the 
Gaoler  was  consenting  to  the  escape.  By  much  ado 
I  could  get  the  Council  to  resent  the  Gaoler's  be- 
havior, and  by  my  Importunity  I  had  the  fellow  be- 
fore us.  We  examin'd  him,  and  by  his  own  story 
and  account  given  us  of  his  suffering  other  prison- 
ers formerly  to  escape,  I  prevail'd  to  have  him 
turn'd  out  and  a  prosecution  order 'd  against  him 
to  the  Attorney  Gen'l.  I  have  also  with  some  dif- 
ficulty this  last  session  of  Assembly  here,  got  a 
bill  to  pass  that  the  Gaol  be  committed  to  the  care 
of  the  High  Sheriff  of  the  County,  as  in  England 
with  a  salary  of  30  pounds  paid  to  the  said  Sheriff. 

s  Prize,  or  plunder. 


78    THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"I  am  forced  to  allow  the  Sheriff  40  Shillings  per 
week  for  keeping  Kidd  safe.  Otherwise  I  should 
be  in  some  doubt  about  him.  He  has  without  doubt 
a  great  deal  of  gold,  which  is  apt  to  corrupt  men 
that  have  not  principles  of  honour.  I  have  there- 
fore, to  try  the  power  of  Iron  against  Gold,  put 
him  into  irons  that  weigh  16  pounds.  I  thought 
it  moderate  enough,  for  I  remember  poor  Dr. 
Oates9  had  a  100  weight  of  Iron  on  him  while  he 
was  a  prisoner  in  the  late  reign. 

"There  never  was  a  greater  liar  or  thief  in  the 
world  than  this  Kidd;  nothwithstanding  he  assured 
the  Council  and  me  every  time  we  examined  him 
that  the  great  Ship  and  her  cargo  awaited  his  re- 
turn to  bring  her  hither,  and  now  your  Lordships 
will  see  by  the  several  informations  of  Masters  of 
Ships  from  Curacoa  that  the  cargo  has  been  sold 
there,  and  in  one  of  them  'tis  said  they  have  burnt 
that  noble  ship.  And  without  doubt,  it  was  by 
Kidd 's  order,  that  the  ship  might  not  be  an  evidence 
against  him,  for  he  would  not  own  to  us  that  her 
name  was  the  Quedah  Merchant,  tho'  his  men  did. 

"Andres  .  .  .10  eyne  and  two  more  brought 
the  first  news  to  New  York  of  the  sale  of  that  cargo 
at  Curacoa,  nor  was  ever  such  pennyworths  heard 
for  cheapness.  Captain  Evertz  is  he  who  has 
brought  the  news  of  the  ship's  being  burnt.  She 
was  about  500  tons,  and  Kidd  told  us  at  Council 
that  never  was  there  a  stronger  or  stauncher  ship 
seen.  His  lying  had  like  to  have  involved  me  in  a 
contract  that  would  have  been  very  chargeable  and 

o  Titus  Oates,  the  notorious  informer,  who  revealed  an  alleged 
"Papist  plot"  to  massacre  the  English  Protestants  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.  He  was  later  denounced,  pilloried,  and  publicly  flogged 
within  an  inch  of  his  life. 

10  Ms.  torn. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  79 

to  no  manner  of  purpose.  I  was  advised  by  the 
Council  to  dispatch  a  Ship  of  good  condition  to  go 
and  fetch  away  that  ship  and  cargo.  I  had  agreed 
for  a  ship  of  300  tons,  22  guns,  and  I  was  to  man  her 
with  60  men  to  force  (if  there  had  been  need  of 
it)  the  men  to  yield  who  were  left  with  the  ship. 

"I  was  just  going  to  seal  the  writing,  when  I  be- 
thought myself  'twere  best  to  press  Kidd  once  more 
to  tell  me  the  truth.  I  therefore  sent  to  him  two 
gentlemen  of  the  Council  to  the  gaol,  and  he  at  last 
own'd  that  he  had  left  a  power  (of  attorney)  with 
one  Henry  Bolton,  a  Merchant  of  Antigua,  to  whom 
he  had  committed  the  care  of  the  ship,  to  sell  and 
dispose  of  all  the  cargo.  Upon  which  confession  of 
Kidd's  I  held  my  hand  from  hiring  that  great  ship 
which  would  have  cost  1700  pounds  by  computation, 
and  now  to-morrow  I  send  the  sloop  Kidd  came  in 
with  letters  to  the  Lieut.  Govn'r  of  Antigua,  Col. 
Yoemans,  and  to  the  Governors  of  St.  Thomas  Is- 
land and  Curacoa  to  seize  and  secure  what  effects 
they  can  that  were  late  in  the  possession  of  Kidd 
and  on  board  the  Quedah  Merchant. 

"There  is  one  Burt,  an  Englishman,  that  lives  at 
St.  Thomas,  who  has  got  a  great  store  of  the  goods 
and  money  for  Kidd's  account.  St.  Thomas  belongs 
to  the  Danes,  but  I  hope  to  retrieve  what  Burt  has 
in  his  hands.  The  sending  this  Sloop  will  cost  but 
about  300  pounds,  if  she  be  out  three  months.  I 
hope  your  Lordships  will  take  care  that  immediate 
orders  will  be  sent  to  Antigua  to  secure  Bolton  who 
must  have  played  the  Knave  egregiously,  for  he 
could  not  but  know  that  Kidd  came  knavishly  by 
the  ship  and  goods. 

"  'Tis  reported  that  the  Dutch  at  Curacoa  have 
loaded  three  sloops  with  goods  and  sent  them  to 


80  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Holland.  Perhaps  'twere  not  amiss  to  send  and 
watch  their  arrival  in  Holland,  if  it  be  practicable 
to  lay  claim  to  'em  there. 

* '  Since  my  commitment  of  Kidd,  I  heard  that  upon 
his  approach  to  this  port,  his  heart  misgave  him 
and  he  proposed  to  his  men  putting  out  to  sea  again, 
and  going  to  Caledonia,  the  new  Scotch  settlement 
near  Darien,  but  they  refused.  I  desire  I  may  have 
orders  what  to  do  with  Kidd  and  all  his  and  Brad- 
ish's  crew,  for  as  the  Law  stands  in  this  Country, 
if  a  Pyrate  were  convicted,  yet  he  cannot  suffer 
death ;  and  the  Council  here  refused  the  bill  to  pun- 
ish Privateers  and  Pyrates,  which  your  Lordships 
sent  with  me  from  England  with  a  direction  to 
recommend  it  at  N.  York  and  here,  to  be  passed  into 
a  Law.     .    .    . 

"You  will  observe  by  some  of  the  information  I 
now  send  that  Kidd  did  not  only  rob  the  two  Moors' 
ships,  but  also  a  Portuguese  ship,  which  he  denied 
absolutely  to  the  Council  and  me.  I  send  your 
Lordships  24  several  papers  and  evidences  relating 
to  Capt.  Kidd.  'Tis  impossible  for  me  to  animad- 
vert and  make  remarks  on  the  several  matters  con- 
tain'd  in  the  said  papers  in  the  weak  condition  I 
am  at  present.     .     .     ." 

My  Lord  Bellomont  was  in  the  grip  of  the  gout 
at  this  time,  which  misfortune  perhaps  increased 
his  irritation  toward  his  partner,  Captain  William 
Kidd.  In  a  previous  letter  to  the  authorities  in  Lon- 
don, this  royal  governor  had  explained  quite  frankly 
that  he  was  trying  to  lure  the  troublesome  pirate 
into  his  clutches,  and  called  Emmot,  the  lawyer, 
"a  cunning  Jacobite,  a  fast  friend  of  Fletcher's11 

11  Lieutenant-governor  at  New  York. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  81 

and  my  avowed  enemie."    He  also  made  this  inter- 
esting statement: 

"I  must  not  forget  to  tell  your  Lordships  that 
Campbell  brought  three  or  four  small  Jewels  to  my 
Wife  which  I  was  to  know  nothing  of,  but  she  came 
quickly  and  discover 'd  them  to  me  and  asked  me 
whether  she  would  keep  them,  which  I  advised  her 
to  do  for  the  present,  for  I  reflected  that  my  show- 
ing an  over  nicety  might  do  hurt  before  I  had  made 
a  full  discovery  what  goods  and  treasure  were  in 
the  Sloop.    .    .    . 

1 '  Mr.  Livingston  also  came  to  me  in  a  peremptory 
manner  and  demanded  up  his  Bond  and  the  articles 
which  he  seal'd  to  me  upon  Kidd's  Expedition,  and 
told  me  that  Kidd  swore  all  the  Oaths  in  the  world 
that  unless  I  did  immediately  indemnify  Mr.  Liv- 
ingston by  giving  up  his  Securities,  he  would  never 
bring  in  that  great  ship  and  cargo.  I  thought  this 
was  such  an  Impertinence  in  both  Kidd  and  Living- 
ston that  it  was  time  for  me  to  look  about  me,  and 
to  secure  Kidd.  I  had  noticed  that  he  design 'd  my 
wife  a  thousand  pounds  in  gold  dust  and  Ingotts 
last  Thursday,  but  I  spoil 'd  his  compliment  by 
ordering  him  to  be  arrested  and  committed  that 
day,  showing  the  Council's  orders  from  Court  for 
that  purpose.     .     .     . 

"If  I  had  kept  Mr.  Secretary  Vernon's  orders  for 
seizing  and  securing  Kidd  and  his  associates  with 
all  their  effects  with  less  secrecy,  I  had  never  got 
him  to  come  in,  for  his  countrymen,  Mr.  Graham 
and  Livingston,  would  have  been  sure  to  caution 
him  to  shift  for  himself  and  would  have  been  well 
paid  for  their  pains. ' ' 


82     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

One  by  one,  Kidd's  plans  for  clearing  himself 
were  knocked  into  a  cocked  hat.  His  lawyer  did 
him  no  good,  his  hope  of  bribing  the  Countess  of 
Bellomont  with  jewels,  "gold  dust  and  Ingotts" 
went  wrong,  and  his  buried  treasure  of  Gardiner's 
Island  was  dug  up  and  confiscated  by  officers  of  the 
Crown.  It  is  regrettable  that  history,  by  one  of 
its  curious  omissions,  tells  us  no  more  about  this 
titled  lady.  Did  Kidd  have  reason  to  suppose  that 
she  would  take  his  gifts  and  try  to  befriend  him? 
When  he  was  in  high  favor  she  may,  perchance,  have 
admired  this  dashing  shipmaster  and  privateer  as 
he  spun  his  adventurous  yarns  in  the  Governor's 
mansion.  He  may  have  jestingly  promised  to  fetch 
her  home  jewels  and  rich  silk  stuffs  of  the  Indies 
filched  from  pirates.  At  any  rate,  she  was  not  to 
be  bought  over,  and  Kidd  sat  in  jail  anchored  by 
those  sixteen-pound  irons,  and  biting  his  nails  in 
sullen  wrath  and  disappointment,  while  a  messenger 
was  posting  to  Gardiner's  Island  with  this  order 
from  Bellomont  to  the  proprietor : 

Boston  in  New  England,  8th  July,  1699. .  ., 
Mr.  Gardiner: 

Having  received  the  King's  express  Orders  for  Seizing 
and  Securing  the  body  of  Capt.  Kidd  and  all  his  asso- 
ciates together  with  all  their  effects  till  I  should  receive 
his  Majesty's  Royal  pleasure  how  to  dispose  of  the  same, 
I  have  accordingly  secured  Capt.  Kidd  in  the  Gaol  of  this 
Town  and  some  of  his  men.  He  has  been  examined  by 
myself  and  the  Council  and  has  confessed  among  other 
things  that  he  left  with  you  a  parcel  of  gold  made  up  in 
a  box  and  some  other  parcels  besides,  all  of  which  I  re- 
quire you  in  his  Majesty's  name  immediately  to  fetch 
hither  to  me,  that  I  may  secure  them  for  his  Majesty's 


3^ 


^; 


<Ha§J 

■421 


•  is 


!?,«« 


The  official  inventory  of  the  Kidd  treasure  found  on  Gardiner's  Islan 
belonging  to  Captain  Kidd.     (From  the  British 


g  fc  is  '5 


is  the  only  original  and  authenticated  record  of  any  treasure 
ipers  in  the  Public  Record  Office,  London.) 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  83 

use,    and    I    shall    recompense    your    pains    in    coming 
hither. 

I  am, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

Bellomont. 

The  box  and  the  chest  were  promptly  delivered 
by  honest  John  Gardiner,  who  had  no  mind  to  be 
mixed  in  the  affairs  of  the  now  notorious  Kidd,  to- 
gether with  the  bales  of  goods  left  in  his  care. 
This  booty  was  inventoried  by  order  of  Bellomont 
and  the  Governor's  Council  and  the  original  docu- 
ment is  photographed  herewith,  as  found  in  the  Pub- 
lic Record  Office,  London.  It  possessed  a  singular 
interest  because  it  records  and  vouches  for  the  only 
Kidd  treasure  ever  discovered.  Nor  are  its  de- 
tailed items  a  mere  dusty  catalogue  of  figures  and 
merchandise.  This  is  a  document  to  gloat  over. 
If  one  has  a  spark  of  imagination,  he  smacks  his 
lips.  Instead  of  legend  and  myth,  here  is  a  veritable 
pirate's  hoard,  exactly  as  it  should  be,  with  its  bags 
of  gold,  bars  of  silver,  "Rubies  great  and  small," 
candlesticks  and  porringers,  diamonds  and  so  on. 
The  inventory  contains  also  other  booty  found  in 
the  course  of  the  treasure  hunt,  and  lest  the  docu- 
ment itself  may  prove  too  hard  reading,  its  contents 
are  transcribed  as  follows  to  convince  the  most 
skeptical  mind  that  there  was  a  real  Kidd  treasure 
and  that  it  was  found  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord,  1699. 

Boston,  New  England,  July  25th,  1699. 

A  true  Accompt.  of  all  such  Gold,  Silver,  Jewels,  and 

Merchandises  in  the  Possession  of   Capt.   William  Kidd, 

Which  have  been  seized  and  secured  by  us  under-writing 

Pursuant  to  an  Order  from  his  Excellency,  Richard,  Earle 


84  .THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

of  Bellomont,  Capt.  Generall  and  Governor-in-Chief  in  and 
over  his  Majestie's  Province  of  ye  Massachusetts  Bay,  etc., 
bearing  date 12     .     .     .     1699,  Vizt. 

In  Capt.  William  Kid's  Box- 
One  Bag    Fifty-three  Silver  Barrs. 

One  Bag  Seventy-nine  Barrs  and  pieces  of  silver.  .  .  . 
One  Bag     Seventy-four  Bars  Silver. 

One  Enamel'd  Silver  Box  in  which  are  4  dia- 
monds set  in  gold  Lockets,  one  diamond  loose, 
one  large  diamond  set  in  a  gold  ring. 

Found  in  Mr.  Duncan  Campbell's  House, 

No.  1.  One  Bag  Gold. 

2.  One  Bag  Gold. 

3.  One  Handkerchief  Gold. 

4.  One  Bag  Gold. 

5.  One  Bag  Gold. 

6.  One  Bag  Gold. 

7.  One  Bag  Gold. 

Also  Twenty  Dollars,  one  halfe  and  one  quart,  pes.  of 
eight,  Nine  English  Crowns,  one  small  Barr  of  Silver, 
one  small  Lump  Silver,  a  small  Chaine,  a  small  bottle, 
a  Corral  Necklace,  one  pc.  white  and  one  pc.  of  Check- 
quer'd  Silk.     .     .     . 

In  Capt.  William  Kidd's  Chest — Two  Silver  Boxons,  Two 
Silver  Candlesticks,  one  Silver  Porringer,  and  some  small 
things  of  Silver — Rubies  small  and  great  Sixty-seven, 
Green  Stones  two.     One  large  Load  Stone.     .     .     . 

Landed  from  on  board  the  Sloop  Antonio  Capt.  Wm.  Kidd 
late  Command.  .  .  .57  Baggs  of  Sugar,  17  pieces 
canvis,  38  Bales  of  Merchandize. 

Received  from  Mr.  Duncan  Campbell  Three  Bailes  Mer- 
chandise, Whereof  one  he  had  opened  being  much  dam- 
nified by  water.  .  .  .  Eighty-five  ps.  Silk  Rumals 
and  Bengalis,  Sixty  ps.  Callicoes  and  Muslins. 

i2  Ms.  torn. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  85 

Received  the  17th.  instant  of  Mr.  John  Gardiner. 
No.     1.     One  Bag  dust  Gold. 

2.  One  Bag  Coyned  Gold  and  in  it  silver. 

3.  One  p'cl  dust  Gold. 

4.  One  Bag  three  Silver  Rings  and  Sundry  precious 

stones.  One  bag  of  unpolished  Stones.  One 
ps.  of  Cristol  and  Bazer  Stone,  Two  Cornelion 
Rings,  two  small  Agats.  Two  Amathests  all  in 
the  same  Bag. 

5.  One  Bag  Silver  Buttons  and  a  Lamp. 

6.  One  Bag  broken  Silver. 

7.  One  Bag  Gold  Bars. 

8.  One  Bag  Gold  Barrs. 

9.  One  Bag  Dust  Gold. 

10.  One  Bag  of  Silver  Bars. 

11.  One  Bag  Silver  Bars. 

The  whole  of  the  Gold  above  mentioned  is  Eleven  hun- 
dred, and  Eleven  ounces,  Troy  Weight. 

The  silver  is  Two  Thousand,  three  Hundred,  Fifty-three 
ounces. 

The  Jewels  or  Precious  Stones  Weight  are   seventeen 
Ounces  . .  an  Ounce,  and  Six 13     .     .     .     Stone  by  Tale. 
The  Sugar  is  Contained  in  Fifty-Seven  Baggs. 
The  Merchandize  is  Contained  in  Forty-one  Bailes. 
The  Canvis  is  Seventeen  pieces. 

Sam.  Sewall. 
Nath'l  Byfield. 
Jer.  Dummeb. 
Laub.  Hammond,  Lt.  Coll. 
Andr.  Belcher. 
Endorsed: 

Inventory  of  the  Gold,  Silver,  Jewels  and  Merchandize 
late  in  the  possession  of  Capt.  Wm.  Kidd  and  Seiz'd  and 
secured  by  ordr.  of  the  E.  of  Bellomont,  28th  of  July 
1699.     This  is  an  original  paper, 

Bellomont." 

13  Ms,  torn. 


86     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

That  famous  sloop,  the  San  Antonio,  was  also 
carefully  inventoried  but  her  contents  were  for  the 
most  part  sea  gear  and  rough  furnishings,  barring 
a  picturesque  entry  of  "ye  boy  Barleycorn,"  an 
apprentice  seaman  who  had  sailed  with  Kidd.  Rob- 
ert Livingston  has  something  to  say  about  Kidd's 
property  in  his  statement  under  examination,  which 
has  been  preserved  as  follows: 

"Robert  Livingston,  Esq.  being  notified  to  appear 
before  his  Excellency  and  Council  this  day  and  sworn 
to  give  a  true  Narrative  and  Relation  of  his  knowl- 
edge or  information  of  any  Goods,  Gold,  Silver, 
Bullion,  or  other  Treasure  lately  imported  by  Capt. 
William  Kidd,  his  Company  and  Accomplices,  or 
any  of  them,  into  this  Province,  or  any  other  of  his 
Majesty's  Provinces,  Colonies,  or  Territories  in 
America,  and  by  them  or  any  of  them  imbezelled, 
concealed,  conveyed  away,  or  any  ways  disposed  of, 
saith : 

"That  hearing  Capt.  Kidd  was  come  into  these 
parts  to  apply  himself  unto  his  Excellency  the  Earl 
of  Bellomont,  the  said  Narrator  came  directly  from 
Albany  ye  nearest  way  through  the  woods  to  meet 
the  said  Kidd  here  and  to  wait  upon  his  Lordship. 
And  at  his  arrival  at  Boston  Capt.  Kidd  informed 
him  there  was  on  board  his  Sloop  then  in  Port  forty 
bales  of  Goods,  and  some  Sugar,  and  also  said  he 
had  about  eighty  pound  weight  in  Plate.  The  Nar- 
rator does  not  remember  whether  he  said  this  was  on 
board  the  Sloop  or  not.  And  further  the  sd.  Kidd 
said  he  had  Forty  pound  weight  in  Gold  which  he 
hid  and  secured  in  some  place  in  the  Sound  betwixt 
this  and  New  York,  not  naming  any  particular  place, 
.which  nobody  could  find  but  himself.  And  that  all 
the  said  Goods,  Gold,  Plate  and  Sloop  was  for  ac- 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  87 

compt.   of  the   Owners   of  the  Adventure   Galley, 
whereof  this  Narrator  was  one. 

"And  upon  further  discourse,  Kidd  acknowledged 
that  several  Chests  and  bundles  of  Goods  belonging 
to  the  men  were  taken  out  of  his  Sloop  betwixt  this 
place  and  New  York,  and  put  into  other  sloops, 
saying  he  was  forced  thereto,  that  his  men  would 
otherwise  have  run  the  Sloop  on  shore.  And  he 
likewise  acknowledged  that  he  had  given  Mr.  Dun- 
can Campbell  one  hundred  pieces  of  eight  when  he 
was  on  board  his  Sloop  at  Rhode  Island.  And  he 
knows  no  further  of  any  concealment,  imbezelment, 
or  disposal  made  by  said  Kidd,  his  Company,  or 
accomplices  of  any  Goods,  Gold,  money,  or  Treas- 
ure whatsoever,  saving  that  Kidd  did  yesterday  ac- 
knowledge to  this  Narrator  that  ye  Gold  afore- 
mentioned was  hid  upon  Gardiner's  Island.  He 
believed  there  was  about  fifty  pound  weight  of  it 
and  that  in  the  same  box  with  it  there  was  about 
three  or  four  hundred  pieces  of  eight  and  some 
pieces  of  Plate  belonging  to  his  boy  Barleycorn  and 
his  Negro  man  which  he  had  gotten  by 14  .  .  . 
for  the  men.  Also  the  said  Kidd  gave  this  Narrator 
a  negro  boy  and  another  to  Mr.  Duncan  Campbell." 

There  is  reproduced  herewith  the  original  state- 
ment of  Kidd  touching  this  Gardiner  Island  treas- 
ure. The  document  is  badly  torn  and  disfigured,  but 
the  gaps  can  be  supplied  from  a  copy  made  at  that 
time,  and  here  is  what  he  had  to  say  under  oath: 

Boston,  Sept.  4th.  1699. 

Captain  "William  Kidd  deelareth  and  Saith  that  in  his 
Chest  which  he  left  at  Gardiner's  Island  there  were  three- 
small  baggs  or  more  of  Jasper  Antonio,  or  Stone  of  Goa, 

"Mb.  torn. 


88     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

several  pieces  of  silk  stript  with  Silver  and  gold  Cloth 
of  Silver,  about  a  Bushell  of  Cloves  and  Nutmegs  mixed 
together,  and  strawed  up  and  down,  several  books  of  fine 
white  Callicoa,  several  pieces  of  fine  Muzlins,  several  pieces 
more  of  flowered  silk.  He  does  not  well  remember  what 
further  was  in  it.  He  had  an  invoice  thereof  in  his  other 
chest.  All  that  was  contained  in  ye  said  Chest  was  bought 
by  him  and  some  given  him  at  Madagascar.  Nothing 
thereof  was  taken  in  ye  ship  Quidah  Merchant.  He  es- 
teemed it  to  be  of  greater  value  than  all  else  that  he  left 
at  Gardiner's  Island  except  ye  Gold  and  Silver.  There 
was  neither  Gold  nor  Silver  in  ye  Chest.  It  was  fastened 
with  a  Padlock  and  nailed  and  corded  about. 

Further  saith  that  he  left  at  said  Gardiner's  Island  a 
bundle  of  nine  or  ten  fine  Indian  quilts,  some  of  ye  silk 
with  fringes  and  Tassels. 

Wm.  Kidd. 

The  Earl  of  Bellomont  was  as  keen  as  a  blood- 
hound on  the  scent  of  treasure  and  it  is  improbable 
that  any  of  the  Kidd  plunder  escaped  his  search. 
He  lost  no  time  in  the  quest  of  that  James  Gillam 
whose  chest  had  been  landed  in  Delaware  Bay,  and 
a  singularly  diverting  episode  is  related  by  Bello- 
mont in  one  of  his  written  reports  to  the  Council 
of  Trade  and  Plantations : 

"I  gave  you  an  account,  Oct.  24th,  of  my  taking 
Joseph  Bradish  and  Wetherly,  and  writ  that  I  hoped 
in  a  little  time  to  be  able  to  send  News  of  my  taking 
James  Gillam,  the  Pyrate  that  killed  Capt.  Edge- 
comb,  commander  of  the  Mocha  Frigate  for  the  East 
India  Co.,  and  that  with  his  own  hand,  while  the 
captain  was  asleep.  Gillam  is  supposed  to  be  the 
man  that  encouraged  the  Ship's  Company  to  turn 
pyrates,  and  the  ship  has  ever  since  been  robbing  in 
the  Bed  Sea  and  Seas  of  India.    If  I  may  believe 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  89 

the  report  of  men  lately  come  from  Madagascar, 
she  has  taken  above  2,000,000  pounds  sterling. 

"I  have  been  so  lucky  as  to  take  James  Gillam, 
and  he  is  now  in  irons  in  the  gaol  of  this  town. 
And  at  the  same  time  we  seized  on  Francis  Dole, 
in  whose  house  he  was  harboured,  who  proved  to  be 
one  of  Hore's  crew.  My  taking  of  Gillam  was  so 
very  accidental  one  would  believe  there  was  a 
strange  fatality  in  the  man's  stars.  On  Saturday, 
11th  inst.,  late  in  the  evening,  I  had  a  letter  from  Col. 
Sanford,  Judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court  in  Rhode 
Island,  giving  me  an  account  that  Gillam  had  been 
there,  but  was  come  towards  Boston  a  fortnight  be- 
fore, in  order  to  ship  himself  for  some  of  the  Islands, 
Jamaica  or  Barbadoes. 

"I  was  in  despair  of  finding  the  man.  However, 
I  sent  for  an  honest  Constable  I  had  made  use  of  in 
apprehending  Kidd  and  his  men,  and  sent  him  with 
Col.  Sanford 's  messenger  to  search  all  the  Inns  in 
town  and  at  the  first  Inn  they  found  the  mare  on 
which  Gillam  had  rode  into  town,  tied  up  in  the 
yard.  The  people  of  the  Inn  reported  that  the  man 
who  brought  her  hither  had  alighted  off  her  about 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  before,  and  went  away  without 
saying  anything. 

"I  gave  orders  to  the  master  of  the  Inn  that  if 
anybody  came  to  look  after  the  mare,  he  should  be 
sure  to  seize  him,  but  nobody  came  for  her.  Next 
morning  I  summoned  a  Council,  and  we  published  a 
Proclamation,  wherein  I  promised  a  reward  of  200 
Pieces  of  Eight  for  the  seizing  and  securing  of 
Gillam,  whereupon  there  was  the  strictest  search 
made  all  that  day  and  the  next  that  was  ever  made 
in  this  part  of  the  world.    But  we  would  have 


90  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

missed  had  I  not  been  informed  of  one  Capt.  Knott 
as  an  old  Pyrate  and  therefore  likely  to  know  where 
Gillam  was  conceal'd.  I  sent  for  Knott  and  exam- 
ined him,  promising  if  he  would  make  an  ingenious 
Confession  I  would  not  molest  him. 

"He  seemed  much  disturbed  but  would  not  confess 
anything  to  purpose.  I  then  sent  for  his  wife  and 
examined  her  on  oath  apart  from  her  husband,  and 
she  confessed  that  one  who  went  by  the  name  of 
James  Kelly  had  lodged  several  nights  in  her  house, 
but  for  some  nights  past  he  lodged,  as  she  believed, 
in  Charlestown,  cross  the  Eiver.  I  knew  that  he 
(Gillam)  went  by  the  name  of  Kelly.  Then  I  exam- 
ined Captain  Knott  again,  telling  him  his  wife  had 
been  more  free  and  ingenious  than  him,  which  made 
him  believe  she  had  told  all.  And  then  he  told  me 
of  Francis  Dole  in  Charlestown,  and  that  he  believed 
that  Gillam  would  be  found  there. 

1 '  I  sent  half  a  dozen  men  immediately,  and  Knott 
with  'em.  They  beset  the  House  and  searched  it, 
but  found  not  the  man.  Two  of  the  men  went 
through  a  field  behind  Dole's  house  and  .  .  . 
met  a  man  in  the  dark  whom  they  seized  at  all  ad- 
venture, and  it  happened  as  oddly  as  luckily  to  be 
Gillam.  He  had  been  treating  two  young  women 
some  few  miles  off  in  the  Country,  and  was  return- 
ing at  night  to  his  landlord  Dole 's  house. 

"I  examined  him  but  he  denied  everything,  even 
that  he  came  with  Kidd  from  Madagascar,  or  ever 
saw  him  in  his  life ;  but  Capt.  Davis  who  came  thence 
with  Kidd's  men  is  positive  he  is  the  man  and  that 
he  went  by  his  true  name  Gillam  all  the  while  he  was 
on  the  voyage  with  'em.  And  Mr.  Campbell,  Post- 
master of  this  town,  whom  I  sent  to  treat  with  Kidd, 
offers  to  swear  this  is  the  man  he  saw  on  board 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  91 

Kidd's  sloop  under  the  name  of  Gillam.  He  is 
the  most  impudent,  hardened  Villain  I  ever 
saw.     .    .     . 

"In  searching  Captain  Knott's  house  a  small 
trunk  was  found  with  some  remnants  of  East  India 
Goods  and  a  letter  from  Kidd's  Wife  to  Capt. 
Thomas  Paine,  an  old  pyrate  living  on  Canonicut 
Island  in  Rhode  Island  Government.  He  made  an 
affidavit  to  me  when  I  was  in  Rhode  Island  that  he 
had  received  nothing  from  Kidd's  sloop,  when  she 
lay  at  anchor  there,  yet  by  Knott's  deposition,  he 
was  sent  with  Mrs.  Kidd's  letter  to  Paine  for  24 
ounces  of  Gold,  which  Kidd  accordingly  brought,  and 
Mrs.  Kidd's  injunction  to  Paine  to  keep  all  the  rest 
that  was  left  with  him  till  further  notice  was  a  plain 
indication  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of  treasure 
still  left  behind  in  Paine 's  Custody. 

"Therefore  I  posted  away  a  messenger  to  Gov. 
Cranston  and  Col.  Sanford  to  make  a  strict  search  of 
Paine 's  house  before  he  could  have  notice.  It  seems 
nothing  was  then  found,  but  Paine  has  since  produced 
18  ounces  and  odd  weight  of  Gold,  as  appears  by 
Gov.  Cranston's  letter,  Nov.  25,  and  pretends  'twas 
bestowed  on  him  by  Kidd,  hoping  that  may  pass  as 
a  salve  for  the  oath  he  has  made.  I  think  it  is  plain 
he  foreswore  himself.  I  am  of  opinion  he  has  a  great 
deal  more  of  Kidd's  goods  still  in  his  hands,  but  he 
is  out  of  my  Power  and  being  in  that  Government 
I  cannot  compel  him  to  deliver  up  the  rest.     .     .     . " 

That  "Edward  Davis,  Mariner,"  who  came  home 
with  Kidd  and  who  made  the  statement  already 
quoted  concerning  Gillam 's  chest,  found  himself  in 
trouble  with  the  others  of  that  crew,  and  the  tireless 
Bellomont  refers  to  him  in  this  fashion : 


92  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"When  Capt.  Kidd  was  committed  to  Gaol,  there 
was  also  a  Pyrate  committed  who  goes  by  the  name 
of  Captain  Davis,  that  came  passenger  with  Kidd 
from  Madagascar.  I  suppose  him  to  be  that  Cap- 
tain Davis  that  Dampier  and  Wafer  speak  of,  in 
their  printed  relations  of  Voyages,  for  an  extraor- 
dinary stout  man ;  but  let  him  be  as  stout  as  he  will, 
here  he  is  a  prisoner,  and  shall  be  forthcoming  upon 
the  order  I  receive  from  England  concerning  Kidd 
and  his  men. 

"When  I  was  at  Rhode  Island  there  was  one 
Palmer,  a  Pyrate,  that  was  out  upon  Bail,  for  they 
cannot  be  persuaded  there  to  keep  a  Pyrate  in  Gaol, 
they  love  'em  too  well.  He  went  out  with  Kidd 
from  London  and  forsook  him  at  Madagascar  to  go 
on  board  the  Mocha  Frigate,  where  he  was  a  con- 
siderable time,  committing  several  Robberies  with 
the  rest  of  the  Pyrates  in  that  Ship,  and  was  brought 
home  by  Shelly  of  New  York. 

i  *  I  asked  Gov.  Cranston  how  he  could  answer  tak- 
ing bail  for  him,  when  he  had  received  so  strict 
Orders  from  Mr.  Secretary  Vernon  to  seize  and  se- 
cure Kidd  and  his  associates  with  their  effects.  I 
desired  Col.  Sanford  to  examine  Palmer  on  oath. 
I  enclose  his  Examination  where  your  Lordships  may 
please  to  observe  that  he  accuses  Kidd  of  murdering 
his  Gunner,  which  I  never  heard  before." 

It  may  be  that  the  "old  Pyrate,"  Thomas  Paine 
buried  a  bag  of  Kidd's  gold  but  it  is  much  more 
likely  that  whatever  had  been  stored  with  him  was 
turned  over  to  that  astute  helpmeet,  Mrs.  William 
Kidd,  for  whom  it  has  been  left  in  his  keeping.  As 
for  that  "most  impudent,  hardened  Villain,"  James 
Gillam,  it  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  his  sea 


L/na-t  in  cfaGcuJ  t/it  nimlli  •/  C  Ycvtmfii  'f'jy  >(Rt  ^Jo-mi   - 

C^yii  6,  fea^sU*  an  & .  iV  M*  Je&nl  cf  MnJUacitiaf  iJH  »Aut  A^i-iy  £,*. 
Auk  oJmi  £§* iOvJ,  /y£  jfy  SnifCtd  //i,at^./(«(  iti* £c*~i«.»*l  » 

{£*  JjCanA  uiiJoiuiyQiJiiTmtojc  otiejf.tntrrJL  Auukfjfc.  n>f<nx"l  JhJL  j'fj,  n>&r* 
nf£aji ?,3t(zcW  tvat  ^cmtwtAi-  -/o  nTr&jSeT  nil  ijcJsbm  and  ttCCe&vyGf  camf 


j^iiv^  tiW t& a aa-n/itifncv  ^m*   ttiinqJc'dlenJKt-i'*  aJ  4&.ijsfan2  nor 

~<*ij  o**  J&*<  °*  <Uf<*6sJ!rAu9- 


ATI 


CUl/ 


2 

■  V     '  .writ  fade  L  4/cu:f<gMnt  '***£%>*  J**»*  ef^rixiyM  afeiiti  of 


Statement  of  Edward  Davis,  who  sailed  home  with  Kidd, 
concerning  the  landing  of  the  treasure  and  goods. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  93 

chest  was  buried  by  the  friends  who  took  it  off  his 
hands  in  Delaware  Bay.  Indeed,  there  was  no  mo- 
tive for  putting  booty  underground  when  it  could 
be  readily  disposed  of  in  the  open  market.  Bello- 
mont  complained  in  one  of  his  letters  of  this  same 
eventful  summer: 

"  There  are  about  thirty  Pyrates  come  lately  into 
the  East  end  of  Nassau  Island  and  have  a  great  deal 
of  Money  with  them,  but  so  cherished  are  they  by  the 
Inhabitants  that  not  a  man  among  them  is  taken  up. 
Several  of  them  I  hear,  came  with  Shelly  from  Mada- 
gascar. Mr.  Hackshaw,  one  of  the  Merchants  in 
London  that  plotted  against  me,  is  one  of  the  owners 
of  Shelley's  Sloop,  and  Mr.  De  Lancey,  a  Frenchman 
at  New  York  is  another.  I  hear  that  Capt.  Kidd 
dropped  some  Pyrates  in  that  Island  (Madagascar). 
Till  there  be  a  good  Judge  or  two,  and  an  honest, 
active  Attorney  General  to  prosecute  for  the  King, 
all  my  Labour  to  suppress  Pyracy  will  signify  even 
just  nothing.  When  Fred  Phillip's  ship  and  the 
other  two  come  from  Madagascar,  which  are  expected 
every  day,  New  York  will  abound  with  Gold.  'Tis 
the  most  beneficial  Trade,  that  to  Madagascar  with 
the  Pyrates,  that  ever  was  heard  of,  and  I  believe 
there's  more  got  that  way  than  by  turning  Pirates 
and  robbing.  I  am  told  this  Shelley  sold  rum,  which 
cost  but  2  s.  per  Gallon  in  New  York  for  50  s.  at 
Madagascar,  and  a  pipe  of  Madeira  wine,  which  cost 
him  19  pounds  at  New  York,  he  sold  for  300  pounds. 
Strong  liquors  and  gun  powder  and  ball  are  the  com- 
modities that  go  off  there  to  best  Advantage,  and 
those  four  ships  last  summer  carried  thither  great 
quantities  of  things." 

There  is  another  authentic  glimpse  of  Kidd  and 
his  men  and  his  spoils,  as  viewed  by  Colonel  Robert 


94  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Quarry,15   Judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court  for  the 
Province  of  Pennsylvania. 

" There  is  arrived  in  this  Government,"  he  re- 
ported, ''about  60  pirates  in  a  ship  directly  from 
Madagascar.  They  are  part  of  Kidd's  gang,  and 
about  20  of  them  have  quitted  the  Ship  and  are 
landed  in  this  Government.  About  sixteen  more 
are  landed  at  Cape  May  in  the  Government  of  West 
Jersey.  The  rest  of  them  are  still  on  board  the  ship 
at  Anchor  near  the  Cape  waiting  for  a  sloop  from 
New  York  to  unload  her.  She  is  a  very  rich  Ship. 
All  her  loading  is  rich  East  India  Bale  Goods  to  a 
very  great  value,  besides  abundance  of  money.  The 
Captain  of  the  Ship  is  one  Shelley  of  New  York  and 
the  ship  belongs  to  Merchants  of  that  place.  The 
Goods  are  all  purchased  from  the  Pirates  at  Mada- 
gascar which  pernicious  trade  gives  encouragement 
to  the  Pirates  to  continue  in  those  parts,  having  a 
Market  for  all  the  Goods  they  plunder  and  rob  in  the 
Eed  Sea  and  several  other  parts  of  East  India." 

is  Colonel  Robert  Quarry  cut  a  rather  odd  figure  as  a  prosecutor 
of  pirates  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.  He  had  been  secretary 
to  the  Governor  of  Carolina  and  assumed  that  office  without  au- 
thority from  the  proprietors,  at  the  death  of  Sir  Richard  Kyle  who 
was  appointed  in  1684. 

"A  few  months  before  it  had  been  recommended  that  'as  the 
Governor  will  not  in  all  probability  always  reside  in  Charles  Town, 
which  is  so  near  the  sea  as  to  be  in  danger  from  a  sudden  invasion 
of  Pirates,'  Governor  Kyle  should  commissionate  a  particular  Gov- 
ernor for  Charles  Town  who  may  act  in  his  absence."  (South 
Carolina  Historical  Society  Collections.) 

Governor  Kyle  suggested  as  a  suitable  person  for  this  office  his 
secretary,  Robert  Quarry,  and  "probably  this  recommendation  made 
Quarry  feel  justified  in  assuming  control  when  Kyle  died.  So 
flagrant  was  Quarry's  encouragement  of  pirates,  and  his  cupidity 
so  notorious  that  he  was  removed  from  office  after  two  months. 
Later  lie  went  north  and  was  appointed  Admiralty  Judge  for  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania."  ("The  Carolina  Pirates,"  by  S.  C.  Hugh- 
son,  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies.) 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TREASURE  95 

Colonel  Quarry  caught  two  of  these  pirates  and 
lodged  them  in  jail  at  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  and 
later  tucked  away  two  others  in  Philadelphia  jail. 
From  the  former  two  thousand  pieces  of  eight  were 
taken,  a  neat  little  fortune  to  show  that  piracy  was 
a  paying  business.  A  few  days  later  Colonel  Quarry 
got  wind  of  no  other  than  Kidd  himself  and  would 
have  caught  him  ahead  of  Bellomont  had  he  been 
properly  supported.     He  protested  indignantly: 

"Since  my  writing  the  enclosed  I  have  by  the  as- 
sistance of  Col.  Bass,  Governor  of  the  Jerseys,  ap- 
prehended four  more  of  the  Pirates  at  Cape  May  and 
might  have  with  ease  secured  all  the  rest  of  them  and 
the  Ship  too,  had  this  Government  (Pennsylvania) 
given  me  the  least  aid  or  assistance.  But  they 
would  not  so  much  as  issue  a  Proclamation,  but  on 
the  contrary  the  people  have  entertained  the  Pirates, 
convey 'd  them  from  place  to  place,  furnished  them 
with  provisions  and  liquors,  and  given  them  intelli- 
gence, and  sheltered  them  from  justice.  And  now 
the  greater  part  of  them  are  conveyed  away  in  boats 
to  Khode  Island.  All  the  persons  I  have  employed 
in  searching  for  and  apprehending  these  Pirates 
are  abused  and  affronted  and  called  Enemies  of 
the  Country  for  disturbing  and  hindering  honest 
men  (as  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  Pirates) 
from  bringing  their  money  and  settling  amongst 
them.     .    .    . 

"Since  my  writing  this,  Capt.  Kidd  is  come  in 
this  (Delaware)  Bay.  He  hath  been  here  about 
ten  days.  He  sends  his  boat  ashore  to  the  Hore 
Kills  where  he  is  supplied  with  what  he  wants  and 
the  people  frequently  go  on  board  him.  He  is  in  a 
Sloop  with  about  forty  men  with  a  Vast  Treasure, 
I  hope  the  express  which  I  sent  to  his  Excellency 


96  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Governor  Nicholson  will  be  in  time  enough  to  send 
the  man-of-war  to  come  np  with  Kidd.     .     .     . 

"The  Pirates  that  I  brought  to  this  Government 
have  the  liberty  to  confine  themselves  to  a  tavern, 
which  is  what  I  expected.  The  six  other  Pirates 
that  are  in  Burlington  are  at  liberty,  for  the  Quakers 
there  will  not  suffer  the  Government  to  send  them 
to  Gaol.  Thus  his  Majesty  may  expect  to  be  obeyed 
in  all  places  where  the  Government  is  in  Quakers' 
hands.     .    .    ." 


CHAPTER  IV 

CAPTAIN  KIDD,   HIS   TRIAL  AND   DEATH 

As  the  under  dog  in  a  situation  where  the  most 
powerful  influences  of  England  conspired  to  blacken 
his  name  and  take  his  life,  Captain  William  Kidd, 
even  at  this  late  day,  deserves  to  be  heard  in  his  own 
defense.  That  he  was  unfairly  tried  and  condemned 
is  admitted  by  various  historians,  who,  nevertheless, 
have  twisted  or  overlooked  the  facts,  as  if  Kidd 
were,  in  sooth,  a  legendary  character.  This  blunder- 
ing, careless  treatment  is  the  more  surprising  be- 
cause Kidd  was  made  a  political  issue  of  such  im- 
portance as  to  threaten  the  overthrow  of  a  Ministry 
and  the  Parliamentary  censure  of  the  King  himself. 
At  the  height  of  the  bitter  hostility  against  Somers, 
the  Whig  Lord  Chancellor  of  William  III,  the  Kidd 
affair  presented  itself  as  a  ready  weapon  for  the 
use  of  his  political  foes. 

"About  the  other  patrons  of  Kidd  the  chiefs  of 
the  opposition  cared  little,"  says  Macauley.1 
"Bellomont  was  far  removed  from  the  political 
scene.  Romney  could  not,  and  Shrewsbury  would 
not  play  a  first  part.  Orford  had  resigned  his  em- 
ployments. But  Somers  still  held  the  Great  Seal, 
still  presided  in  the  House  of  Lords,  still  had  con- 
stant access  to  the  closet.  The  retreat  of  his  friends 
had  left  him  the  sole  and  undisputed  head  of  that 
party  which  had,  in  the  late  Parliament,  been  a  ma- 

l  History  of  England. 

97 


98     THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

jority,  and  which  was  in  the  present  Parliament  out- 
numbered indeed,  disorganized  and  threatened,  but 
still  numerous  and  respectable.  His  placid  courage 
rose  higher  and  higher  to  meet  the  dangers  which 
threatened  him. 

"In  their  eagerness  to  displace  and  destroy  him, 
they  overreached  themselves.  Had  they  been  con- 
tent to  accuse  him  of  lending  his  countenance,  with 
a  rashness  unbecoming  his  high  place,  to  an  ill- 
concerted  scheme,  that  large  part  of  mankind  which 
judges  of  a  plan  simply  by  the  event  would  probably 
have  thought  the  accusation  well  founded.  But  the 
malice  which  they  bore  to  him  was  not  to  be  so  sat- 
isfied. They  affected  to  believe  that  he  had  from 
the  first  been  aware  of  Kidd's  character  and  de- 
signs. The  Great  Seal  had  been  employed  to  sanc- 
tion a  piratical  expedition.  The  head  of  the  law 
had  laid  down  a  thousand  pounds  in  the  hopes  of 
receiving  tens  of  thousands  when  his  accomplices 
should  return  laden  with  the  spoils  of  ruined  mer- 
chants. It  was  fortunate  for  the  Chancellor  that 
the  calumnies  of  which  he  was  object  were  too  atro- 
cious to  be  mischievous. 

1 '  And  now  the  time  had  come  at  which  the  hoarded 
ill-humor  of  six  months  was  at  liberty  to  explode. 
On  the  sixteenth  of  November  the  House  met.  .  .  . 
There  were  loud  complaints  that  the  events  of  the 
preceding  session  had  been  misrepresented  to  the 
public,  that  emissaries  of  the  Court,  in  every  part 
of  the  kingdom,  declaimed  against  the  absurd  jeal- 
ousies or  still  more  absurd  parsimony  which  had 
refused  to  his  Majesty  the  means  of  keeping  up  such 
an  army  as  might  secure  the  country  against  in- 
vasion. Angry  resolutions  were  passed,  declaring 
it  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  House  that  the  best  way 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH      99 

to  establish  entire  confidence  between  the  King  and 
the  Estates  would  be  to  put  a  brand  on  those  evil 
advisers  who  had  dared  to  breathe  in  the  royal  ear 
calumnies  against  a  faithful  Parliament. 

"An  address  founded  on  these  resolutions  was 
voted ;  many  thought  that  a  violent  rupture  was  in- 
evitable. But  William  returned  an  answer  so  pru- 
dent and  gentle  that  malice  itself  could  not  prolong 
the  dispute.  By  this  time,  indeed,  a  new  dispute  had 
begun.  The  address  had  scarcely  been  moved  when 
the  House  called  for  copies  of  the  papers  relating 
to  Kidd's  expedition.  Somers,  conscious  of  his  in- 
nocence, knew  that  it  was  wise  as  well  as  right  and 
resolved  that  there  should  be  no  concealment. 

"Howe  raved  like  a  maniac.  'What  is  to  become 
of  the  country,  plundered  by  land,  plundered  by 
seal  Our  rulers  have  laid  hold  of  our  lands,  our 
woods,  our  mines,  our  money.  And  all  this  is  not 
enough.  We  cannot  send  a  cargo  to  the  farthest 
ends  of  the  earth,  but  they  must  send  a  gang  of 
thieves  after  it.'  Harley  and  Seymour  tried  to 
carry  a  vote  of  censure  without  giving  the  House 
time  to  read  the  papers.  But  the  general  feeling 
was  strongly  for  a  short  delay.  At  length  on  the 
sixth  of  December,  the  subject  was  considered  in  a 
committee  of  the  whole  House.  Shower  undertook 
to  prove  that  the  letters  patent  to  which  Somers 
had  put  the  Great  Seal  were  illegal.  Cowper  re- 
plied to  him  with  immense  applause,  and  seems  to 
have  completely  refuted  him. 

"At  length,  after  a  debate  which  lasted  from  mid- 
day till  nine  at  night,  and  in  which  all  the  leading 
members  took  part,  the  committee  divided  on  the 
question  that  the  letters  patent  were  dishonorable 
to  the  King,  inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  nations, 


100         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

contrary  to  the  statutes  of  the  realm,  and  destruc- 
tive of  property  and  trade.  The  Chancellor's  ene- 
mies had  felt  confident  of  victory,  and  made  the 
resolution  so  strong  in  order  that  it  might  be  impos- 
sible for  him  to  retain  the  Great  Seal.  They  soon 
found  that  it  would  have  been  wise  to  propose  a 
gentler  censure.  Great  numbers  of  their  adherents, 
convinced  by  Cowper's  arguments,  or  unwilling  to 
put  a  cruel  stigma  on  a  man  of  whose  genius  and 
accomplishments  the  nation  was  proud,  stole  away 
before  the  doors  were  closed.  To  the  general  as- 
tonishment, there  were  only  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  Ayes  to  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  Noes. 
That  the  city  of  London  did  not  consider  Somers 
as  the  destroyer,  and  his  enemies  as  the  protectors 
of  trade,  was  proved  on  the  following  morning  by 
the  most  unequivocal  of  signs.  As  soon  as  the  news 
of  the  triumph  reached  the  Eoyal  Exchange,  the 
price  of  stocks  went  up." 

There  is  a  very  rare  pamphlet  which  illuminates 
the  matter  in  much  more  detail.  It  was  written  and 
published  as  a  defense  of  Bellomont  and  his  part- 
ners and  the  very  length,  elaboration,  and  heat  of 
its  argument  shows  how  furiously  the  political  pot 
was  boiling  while  Kidd  was  imprisoned  in  London 
awaiting  his  trial.  This  ex  parte  production  is  en- 
titled "A  Full  Account  of  the  Actions  of  the  Late 
Famous  Pyrate,  Captain  Kidd,  With  the  Proceed- 
ings against  Him  and  a  Vindication  of  the  Eight 
Honourable  Eichard,  Earl  of  Bellomont,  Lord  Ca- 
loony,  late  Governor  of  New  England,  and  other 
Honourable  Persons  from  the  Unjust  Eeflections 
Cast  upon  Them.     By  a  Person  of  Quality.' '  2 

It  is  herein  recorded  that  the  arguments  to  sup- 

2  Published  in  1701. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     101 

port  the  question  moved  in  Parliament  were: 
"1 — That  by  law  the  King  could  not  grant  the 
Goods  of  Pirates,  at  least,  not  before  conviction. 
"2 — That  the  Grant  was  extravagant,  for  all 
Goods  of  Pirates,  taken  with  or  by  any  persons  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  were  granted  away. 
"3 — Not  only  the  Goods  of  the  Pirates,  but  all 
Goods  taken  with  them  were  granted,  which  was  il- 
legal, because  tho '  the  Goods  were  taken  by  Pirates, 
the  rightful  Owners  have  still  a  Title  to  them,  Piracy 
working  no  change  of  Property. 
"5 — By  this  Grant  a  great  Hardship  was  put  upon 
the  Merchants  whose  Goods  might  be  taken  with  the 
Pirates,  for  they  had  nowhere  to  go  for  Justice. 
They  could  not  hope  for  it  in  the  Chancery,  the 
Lord  Chancellor  being  interested ;  nor  at  the  Board 
of  Admiralty  where  the  Earl  of  Orford  presided; 
nor  from  the  King,  all  access  to  him  being  by  the 
Duke  of  Shrewsbury;  nor  in  the  Plantations  where 
the  Earl  of  Bellomont  was.  So  the  only  Judge  who 
the  Pirates  were,  and  what  goods  were  theirs,  was 
Captain  Kidd  himself. ' ' 

Whatsoever  may  have  been  wrong  with  his  con- 
tract or  his  commissions,  and  Parliament  sustained 
them  by  vote  as  already  mentioned,  Captain  Kidd 
cannot  be  held  blameworthy  on  this  score.  And  it 
is  absurd  to  call  him  a  premeditated  pirate  who  sailed 
from  Plymouth  with  evil  purpose  in  his  heart.  His 
credentials  and  endorsements,  his  record  as  a  ship- 
master, and  his  repute  at  home,  cannot  be  set  aside. 
They  speak  for  themselves.  Nor  is  it  possible  to 
reconcile  the  character  of  the  man,  as  he  was  known 
by  his  deeds  up  to  that  time,  with  the  charges  laid 
against  him. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  complaints  made  against 


102         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

his  conduct  in  the  waters  of  the  Far  East  came  from 
the  East  India  Company  which  denounced  and  pro- 
claimed him  as  a  pirate  with  a  price  on  his  head.  It 
was  a  case  of  the  pot  calling  the  kettle  black.  Al- 
though the  House  of  Commons  had  decided  five  years 
before  that  the  old  Company  should  no  longer  have 
a  monopoly  of  English  trade  in  Asiatic  seas,  the  mer- 
chants of  London  or  Bristol  dared  not  fit  out  ven- 
tures to  voyage  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and 
found  it  necessary  to  send  their  goods  in  the  ships 
that  flew  the  flag  of  India  House.  The  private 
trader  still  ran  grave  of  being  treated  as  a  smuggler, 
if  not  as  a  pirate.  "He  might,  indeed,  if  he  was 
wronged,  apply  for  redress  to  the  tribunals  of  his 
country.  But  years  must  elapse  before  his  cause 
could  be  heard ;  his  witnesses  must  be  conveyed  over 
fifteen  thousand  miles  of  sea ;  and  in  the  meantime  he 
was  a  ruined  man. ' ' 3 

This  powerful  corporation  which  ruled  the  Eastern 
seas  as  it  pleased,  confiscating  the  ships  and  goods 
of  private  traders,  accused  Kidd  of  seizing  two 
ships  with  their  cargoes  which  belonged  to  the  Great 
Mogul,  and  of  several  petty  depredations  hardly  to 
be  classed  as  piracy.  The  case  against  him  was  built 
up  around  the  two  vessels  known  as  the  November 
and  the  Quedah  Merchant.  His  defense  was  that  on 
board  these  prizes  he  had  found  French  papers,  or 
safe  conduct  passes  made  out  in  the  name  of  the 
King  of  France  and  issued  by  the  French  East  India 
Company.  He  therefore  took  the  ships  as  lawful 
commerce  of  the  enemy. 

The  crews  of  such  trading  craft  as  these  comprised 
men  of  many  nations,  Arabs,  Lascars,  Portuguese, 
French,    Dutch,    English,    Armenian,    and    Heaven 

3  Macauley. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     103 

knows  what  else.  The  nationality  of  the  skipper,  the 
mate,  the  supercargo,  or  the  foremast  hands  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  ownership  of  the  vessel,  or  the 
flag  under  which  she  was  registered,  or  chartered. 
The  papers  found  in  her  cabin  determined  whether 
or  not  she  should  be  viewed  as  a  prize  of  war,  or  per- 
mitted to  go  on  her  way.  In  order  to  protect  the  ship 
as  far  as  possible,  it  was  not  unusual  for  the  master 
to  obtain  two  sets  of  papers,  to  be  used  as  occasion 
might  require,  and  it  is  easily  possible  that  the 
Quedah  Merchant,  trading  with  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, may  have  taken  out  French  papers,  in  order 
to  deceive  any  French  privateer  or  cruiser  that 
might  be  encountered.  Nor  did  the  agents  of  the 
East  India  Company  see  anything  wrong  in  resort- 
ing to  such  subterfuges. 

The  corner  stone  of  Kidd's  defense  and  justifica- 
tion was  these  two  French  passes,  which  precious 
documents  he  had  brought  home  with  him,  and  it  was 
admitted  even  by  his  enemies  that  the  production  of 
them  as  evidence  would  go  far  to  clear  him  of  the 
charges  of  piracy.  That  they  were  in  his  possession 
when  he  landed  in  New  England  and  that  Bellomont 
sent  them  to  the  Lords  of  Plantations  in  London 
is  stated  in  a  letter  quoted  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter. The  documents  then  disappeared,  their  very  ex- 
istence was  denied,  and  Kidd  was  called  a  liar  to  his 
face,  and  his  memory  damned  by  historians  writing 
later,  for  trying  to  save  his  neck  by  means  of  evi- 
dence which  he  was  powerless  to  exhibit. 

It  would  appear  that  these  papers  were  not  pro- 
duced in  court  because  it  had  been  determined  that 
Kidd  should  be  found  guilty  as  a  necessary  scape- 
goat. But  he  told  the  truth  about  the  French  passes, 
and  after  remaining  among  the  state  papers  for 


104         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

more  than  two  centuries,  the  original  of  one  of  them, 
that  found  by  him  aboard  the  Quedah  Merchant,  was 
recently  discovered  in  the  Public  Record  Office  by 
the  author  of  this  book,  and  it  is  herewith  photo- 
graphed in  fac  simile.  Its  purport  has  been  trans- 
lated as  follows : 

FROM  THE  KING. 

WE,  FRANCOIS  MARTIN  ESQUIRE,  COUNCIL- 
LOR OF  THE  ROYAL  DIRECTOR,  Minister  of  Com- 
merce for  the  Royal  Company  of  France  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Bengal,  the  Coast  of  Coramandel,  and  other  (de- 
pendencies). To  all  those  who  will  see  these  presents, 
Greetings : 

The  following,  Coja  Quanesse,  Coja  Jacob,  Armenian; 
Nacodas,  of  the  ship  Cara  Merchant,  which  the  Armenian 
merchant  Agapiris  Kalender  has  freighted  in  Surate  from 
Cohergy  .  .  .  having  declared  to  us  that  before  their 
departure  from  Surate  they  had  taken  a  passport  from  the 
Company  which  they  have  presented  to  us  to  be  dated 
from  the  first  of  January,  1697,  signed  Martin  and  sub- 
scribed de  Grangemont;  that  they  feared  to  be  molested 
during  the  voyage  which  they  had  to  make  from  this  port 
to  Surate,  and  alleging  that  the  aforementioned  passport 
is  no  longer  valid,  and  that  for  this  reason  they  begged 
of  us  urgently  to  have  another  sent  to  them; — For  these 
reasons  we  recommend  and  enjoin  upon  all  those  under  the 
authority  of  the  Company;  we  beg  the  Chiefs  of  Squad- 
rons and  Commanders  of  Vessels  of  His  Majesty:  and  we 
request  all  the  friends  and  allies  of  the  Crown  in  nowise 
to  retard  the  voyage  and  to  render  all  possible  aid  and 
comfort,  promising  on  a  similar  occasion  to  do  likewise. 
In  testimony  of  which  we  have  signed  these  presents,  and 
caused  them  to  be  countersigned  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Company,  and  the  seal  of  his  arms  placed  thereon. 

Maktin. 
(Dated  Jan.  16,  1698.) 


r<  f!,.  tv 


r    &> 


.  !  sM  s  ft,i  H  |J  §.  >.* 

"•J    3    5    «»  §    5   ^    s>.    vS  -a    .,  s>    r 

Si  1|  $  J  v  •*  .§  ^  |  «  s  $  .& 

^111  iMImh^  r 


M  -v 

>    bo 


ft 


Si 


Vs '-4  s-  *-  $  <s  «%  5 


^a  g  - 

* 

N  |;l3 

Or  ••  *  h  ^ 

u3;| 

a    v.  jjk  S-i  V  s    b  ^    ? 

v    ^,      •     m  .  V.  v-     b     \    v^ 

i  J  4  |  "2  1  *  3  J  -. 

^  "    IS     '     "    s    J     ?      ■     > 

|  "$     S    -^  •   ^ 


1.2 


^  * 


>.  ** 


*t^  <£  'H  ~%b\ 


■-  'J 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     105 

It  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  Cara  Mer- 
chant of  the  passport,  is  intended  to  designate  the 
ship  in  which  the  document  was  found  by  Kidd.  In 
various  reports  of  the  episode,  the  name  of  the  ves- 
sel was  spelled  Quidah,  Quedah,  Queda  and  Quedagh. 
The  word  is  taken  from  the  name  of  a  small  native 
state  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  even  to-day  it  is 
set  down  in  various  ways,  as  Quedah,  Kedda,  or 
Kedah.  Other  circumstances  confirm  this  supposi- 
tion and  go  far  to  prove  that  the  ship  was  a  lawful 
prize  for  an  English  privateer.  During  the  period 
between  the  Eevolution  and  the  War  of  1812,  Eng- 
land confiscated  many  American  merchant  vessels  in 
the  West  Indies  under  pretexts  not  a  whit  more  con- 
vincing than  Kidd's  excuse  for  snapping  up  the 
Quedah  Merchant. 

What  Kidd  himself  had  to  say  about  this  affair  is 
told  in  his  narrative  of  the  voyage  as  he  related  it 
during  his  preliminary  examination  while  under  ar- 
rest in  Boston.    It  runs  as  follows : 

A  Narrative  of  the  Voyage  of  Capt.  William  Kidd, 
Commander  of  the  Adventure  Galley,  from  London  to  the 
East  Indies. 

That  the  'Journal  of  the  said  Capt.  Kidd  being  vio- 
lently taken  from  him  in  the  Port  of  St.  Maries  in  Mada- 
gascar; and  his  life  many  times  being  threatened  to  be 
taken  away  from  him  by  97  of  his  men  that  deserted  him 
there,  he  cannot  give  that  exact  Account  he  otherwise 
would  have  done,  but  as  far  as  his  memory  will  serve,  it  is 
as  follows,  Vizt: 

That  the  said  Adventure  Galley  was  launched  in  Castles 
Yard  at  Deptford  about  the  4th.  day  of  December,  1695, 
and  about  the  latter  end  of  February  the  said  Galley  came 
to  ye  buoy  in  the  Nore,  and  about  the  first  day  of  March 
following,  his  men  were  pressed  from  him  for  the  Fleet 
which  caused  him  to  stay  there  about  19  days,  and  then 


106         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

sailed  for  the  Downs  and  arrived  there  about  the  8th  or 
10th  day  of  April  1696,  and  sailed  thence  to  Plymouth 
and  on  the  23rd.  day  of  the  said  month  of  April  he  sailed 
from  Plymouth  on  his  intended  Voyage.  And  some  time 
in  the  month  of  May  met  with  a  small  French  Vessel  with 
Salt  and  Fishing  tackle  on  board,  bound  for  Newfound- 
land, which  he  took  and  made  prize  of  and  carried  the 
same  into  New  York  about  the  4th  day  of  July  where  she 
was  condemned  as  lawful  prize,  and  the  produce  whereof 
purchased  Provisions  for  the  said  Galley  for  her  further 
intended  Voyage. 

That  about  the  6th.  day  of  September,  1696,  the  said 
Capt.  Kidd  sailed  for  the  Madeiras  in  company  with  one 
Joyner,  Master  of  a  Brigantine  belonging  to  Bermuda,  and 
arrived  there  about  the  8th.  day  of  October  following,  and 
thence  to  Bonavista  where  they  arrived  about  the  19th.  of 
the  said  month  and  took  in  some  Salt  and  stay'd  three  or 
four  days  and  sailed  thence  to  St.  Jago  and  arrived  there 
the  24th,  of  the  said  month,  where  he  took  in  some  water 
and  stay'd  about  8  or  9  days,  and  thence  sailed  for  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  in  the  Latitude  of  32,  on  the 
12th  day  of  December,  1696,  met  with  four  English  men 
of  war  whereof  Capt.  Warren  was  Commodore  and  sailed 
a  week  in  their  company,  and  then  parted  and  sailed  to 
Telere,  a  port  in  the  Island  of  Madagascar. 

And  being  there  about  the  29th  day  of  January,  there 
came  in  a  Sloop  belonging  to  Barbadoes  loaded  with  Rum, 
Sugar,  Powder,  and  Shott,  one  French,  Master,  and  Mr. 
Hatton  and  Mr.  John  Batt,  merchants,  and  the  said  Hat- 
ton  came  on  board  the  said  Galley  and  was  suddenly  taken 
ill  and  died  in  the  Cabbin.  And  about  the  latter  end  of 
February  sailed  for  the  Island  of  Johanna,  and  the  said 
Sloop  keeping  company,  and  arrived  thereabout  the  18th 
day  of  March,  where  he  found  four  East  India  merchant- 
men, outward  bound,  and  watered  there  all  together  and 
stay'd  about  four  days,  and  from  thence  about  the  22nd 
day  of  March  sailed  for  Mehila,  an  Island  ten  Leagues 
distant  from  Johanna,  where  he  arrived  the  next  morning, 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     107 

and  there  careened  the  said  Galley,  and  about  fifty  men 
died  there  in  a  week's  time.4 

And  about  the  25th  day  of  April,  1697,  set  sail  for  the 
coast  of  India,  and  came  upon  the  coast  of  Malabar,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  month  of  September,  and  went  into 
Carawar  upon  that  coast  about  the  middle  of  the  same 
month,  and  watered  there.  The  Gentlemen  of  the  English 
Factory  gave  the  Narrator  an  account  that  the  Portugese 
were  fitting  out  two  men  of  war  to  take  him,  and  advised 
him  to  set  out  to  sea,  and  to  take  care  of  himself  from 
them,  and  immediately  he  set  sail  therefrom  about  the 
22nd  of  the  said  month  of  September.  And  the  next  morn- 
ing, about  break  of  day,  saw  the  said  two  men-of-war 
standing  for  the  said  Galley,  and  they  spoke  with  him  and 
asked  him  whence  he  was,  who  replied  from  London,  and 
they  returned  answer  from  Goa,  and  so  parted,  wishing 
each  other  a  good  Voyage. 

And  making  still  along  the  coast,  the  Commodore  of  the 
said  men-of-war  kept  dogging  the  said  Galley  at  night, 
waiting  an  opportunity  to  board  the  same,  and  in  the  morn- 
ing without  speaking  a  word  fired  six  great  guns  at  the 
Galley,  some  whereof  went  through  her  and  wounded  four 
of  his  men.  And  therefore  he  fired  upon  him  again,  and 
the  fight  continued  all  day,  and  the  Narrator  had  eleven 
men  wounded.  The  other  Portugese  men  of  war  lay  some 
distance  off,  and  could  not  come  up  with  the  Galley,  being 
calm,  else  would  have  likewise  assaulted  the  same.     The 

*"From  hence  putting  off  to  the  West  Indies,  wee  were  not  many 
dayes  at  sea,  but  there  beganne  among  our  people  such  mortalitie 
as  in  fewe  days  there  were  dead  above  two  or  three  hundred  men. 
And  until  some  seven  or  eight  dayes  after  our  coming  from  S.  Iago, 
there  had  not  died  any  one  man  of  sickness  in  all  the  fleete;  the 
sickness  shewed  not  his  infection  wherewith  so  many  were  stroken 
until  we  were  departed  thence,  and  then  seazed  our  people  with 
extreme  hot  burning  and  continuall  agues,  whereof  very  fewe  es- 
caped with  life,  and  yet  those  for  the  most  part  not  without  great 
alteration  and  decay  of  their  wittes  and  strength  for  a  long  time 
after." — Hakluyt's  Voyages. —  (A  Summarie  and  True  Discourse  of 
Sir  Francis  Drake's  West  Indian  voyage  begun  in  the  Year  1585.) 


108         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

said  fight  was  sharp  and  the  said  Portugese  left  the  said 
Galley  with  such  satisfaction  that  the  Narrator  believes  no 
Portugese  will  ever  attack  the  King's  Colours  again,  in 
that  part  of  the  World  especially. 

Afterwards  continued  upon  the  said  coast  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  month  of  November  1697  cruising  upon  the 
Cape  of  Cameroon  for  Pyrates  that  frequent  that  coast. 
Then  he  met  with  Capt.  How  in  the  Loyal  Captain,  a 
Dutch  Ship  belonging  to  Madras,  bound  to  Surat  whom 
he  examined  and  finding  his  pass  good,  designed  freely  to 
let  her  pass  about  her  affairs.  But  having  two  Dutchmen 
on  board,  they  told  the  Narrator's  men  that  they  had 
divers  Greeks  and  Armenians  on  board  who  had  divers 
precious  Stones  and  other  rich  goods,  which  caused  his 
men  to  be  very  mutinous,  and  they  got  up  their  Arms, 
and  swore  they  would  take  the  Ship.  The  Narrator  told 
them  the  small  arms  belonged  to  the  Galley,  and  that  he 
was  not  come  to  take  any  Englishmen  or  lawful  Traders, 
and  that  if  they  attempted  any  such  thing,  they  should 
never  come  on  board  the  Galley  again,  nor  have  the  boat 
or  small  arms,  for  he  had  no  Commission  to  take  any  but 
the  King's  Enemies  and  Pyrates  and  that  he  would  attack 
them  with  the  Galley  and  drive  them  into  Bombay,  (the 
other  Vessel  being  a  Merchantman,  and  having  no  guns, 
they  might  easily  have  done  it  with  a  few  hands). 

With  all  the  arguments  and  menaces  he  could  use,  he 
could  scarce  restrain  them  from  their  unlawful  design,  but 
at  last  prevail'd  and  with  much  ado  got  him  clear  and  let 
him  go  about  his  business.  All  of  which  Captain  How  will 
attest  if  living. 

And  about  the  18th.  or  19th  day  of  the  said  month  of 
November  met  with  a  Moors'  Ship  of  about  200  Tons  com- 
ing from  Surat,  bound  to  the  Coast  of  Malabar,  loaded 
with  two  horses,  Sugar  and  Cotton,  having  about  40  Moors 
on  board  with  a  Dutch  Pylot,  Boatswain,  and  Gunner, 
which  said  Ship  the  Narrator  hailed,  and  commanded  (the 
Master)  on  board  and  with  him  came  8  or  9  Moors  and 
the  said  three  Dutchmen,  who  declared  it  was  a  Moors' 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     109 

ship,  and  he  (the  Narrator)  demanding  their  Pass  from 
Surat  which  they  showed  and  the  same  was  a  French  Pass 
which  he  believed  was  showed  by  mistake,  for  the  Pylot 
swore  by  Sacrament  she  was  a  Prize  and  staid  on  board 
the  Galley  and  would  not  return  again  on  board  the  Moors' 
Ship  but  went  in  the  Galley  to  the  port  of  St.  Maries. 

And  that  about  the  first  day  of  February  following,  upon 
the  same  coast,  under  French  Colours  with  a  designe  to 
decoy,  met  a  Bengali  merchantman  5  belonging  to  Surat,  of 
the  burthen  of  4  or  500  tons,  10  guns,  and  he  commanded 
the  master  on  board,  and  a  Frenchman,  Inhabitant  of 
Surat  and  belonging  to  the  French  Factory  there  and  Gun- 
ner of  said  ship,  came  on  board  as  Master,  and  when  he 
came  on  board  the  Narrator  caused  the  English  Colours 
to  be  hoysted,  and  the  said  Master  was  surprised,  and  said 
"You  are  all  English,"  and  asked  which  was  the  Captain, 
whom  when  he  (the  Frenchman)  saw,  he  said,  "Here  is 
a  good  prize"  and  delivered  him  the  French  pass. 

And  that  with  the  said  two  Prizes,  he  (the  Narrator) 
sailed  for  the  Port  of  St.  Maries  in  Madagascar,  and  sailing 
thither  the  Galley  was  so  leaky  that  they  feared  she  would 
have  sunk  every  hour,  and  it  required  eight  men  every 
two  glasses  to  keep  her  free,  and  they  were  forced  to  woold 
her  round  with  Cables  to  keep  her  together,  and  with  much 
ado  carried  her  into  port.  .  .  .  And  about  the  6th  day 
of  May,  the  lesser  Prize  was  haled  into  the  careening  island 
or  key  (the  other  not  having  arrived),  and  ransacked  and 
sunk  by  the  mutinous  men  who  threatened  the  Narrator 
and  the  men  that  would  not  join  with  them,  to  burn  and 
sink  the  other  Ship  that  they  might  not  go  home  and  tell 
the  news. 

And  that  when  he  arrived  in  the  said  port,  there  was  a 
Pyrate  Ship,  called  the  Moca  Frigat,  at  an  Anchor,  Robert 
Culliford,  Commander  thereof,  who  with  his  men  left  the 
same  and  ran  into  the  woods,  and  the  Narrator  proposed 
to  his  men  to  take  the  same,  having  sufficient  power  and 
authority  so  to  do,  but  the  mutinous  crew  told  him  if  he 

s  The  Quedah  Merchant. 


110         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

offered  the  same  they  would  rather  fire  two  guns  into  him 
than  one  into  the  other;  and  thereupon  97  deserted  and 
went  into  the  Moca  Frigat,  and  sent  into  the  woods  for  the 
said  Pyrates  and  brought  the  said  Culliford  and  his  men 
on  board  again.  And  all  the  time  she  (the  Moca  Frigat) 
staid  in  the  said  Port,  which  was  for  the  space  of  4  or 
5  days,  the  said  deserters,  sometimes  in  great  numbers, 
came  on  board  the  Adventure  Galley  and  her  prize  and 
carried  away  the  great  gun,  powder,  shot,  arms,  sails, 
anchors,  etc.,  and  what  they  pleased,  and  threatened  sev- 
eral times  to  murder  the  Narrator  (as  he  was  informed  and 
advised  to  take  care  of  himself),  which  they  designed  in  the 
night  to  effect,  but  was  prevented  by  his  locking  himself 
in  his  Cabbin  and  securing  himself  with  barricading  the 
same  with  bales  of  Goods,  and  having  about  forty  Small 
arms  besides  Pistols  ready  charged,  kept  them  out.  Their 
wickedness  was  so  great  that  after  they  had  plundered 
and  ransacked  sufficiently,  they  went  four  miles  off  to  one 
Edward  Welche's  house  where  his  (the  Narrator's)  chest 
was  lodged,  and  broke  it  open  and  took  out  10  ounces  of 
gold,  forty  pounds  of  plate,  370  pieces  of  eight,  the  Nar- 
rator's 'Journal,  and  a  great  many  papers  that  belonged  to 
him,  and  to  the  people  of  New  Yorke  that  fitted  him  out. 

That  about  the  15th  day  of  June  the  Moca  Frigate  went 
away,  being  manned  with  about  130  men  and  forty  guns, 
bound  out  to  take  all  Nations.  Then  it  was  that  the  Nar- 
rator was  left  with  only  about  13  men,  so  that  the  Moors 
he  had  to  pump  and  keep  the  Adventure  Galley  above 
water  being  carried  away,  she  sank  in  the  Harbour,  and 
the  Narrator  with  the  said  Thirteen  men  went  on  board  of 
the  Adventure's  Prize  where  he  was  forced  to  stay  five 
months  for  a  fair  wind.  In  the  meantime  some  Passengers 
presented  themselves  that  were  bound  for  these  parts, 
which  he  took  on  board  to  help  to  bring  the  said  Adven- 
ture's Prize  6  home. 

That  about  the  beginning  of  April  1699,  the  Narrator 
arrived  at  Anguilla  in  the  West  Indies  and  sent  his  boat 
e  The  Quedah  Merchant. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     111 

on  shore  where  his  men  heard  the  News  that  he  and  his 
People  were  proclaimed  Pirates,  which  put  them  into  such 
a  Consternation  that  they  sought  all  opportunities  to  run 
the  Ship  on  shore  upon  some  reefs  or  shoal,  fearing  the 
Narrator  should  carry  them  into  some  English  port. 

From  Anguilla,  they  came  to  St.  Thomas  where  his 
brother-in-law,  Samuel  Bradley,  was  put  on  shore,  being 
sick,  and  five  more  went  away  and  deserted  him.  There 
he  heard  the  same  News,  that  the  Narrator  and  his  Com- 
pany were  proclaimed  Pirates,  which  incensed  the  people 
more  and  more.  From  St.  Thomas  set  sail  for  Mona,  an 
Island  between  Hispaniola  and  Porto  Rico,  where  they  met 
with  a  Sloop  called  the  St.  Anthony,  bound  for  Antigua 
from  Curacoa,  Mr.  Henry  Bolton,  Merchant,  and  Samuel 
Wood,  Master.  The  men  on  board  then  swore  they  would 
bring  the  ship  no  farther.  The  Narrator  then  sent  the 
said  Sloop,  St.  Anthony,  to  Curacoa  for  canvas  to  make 
sails  for  the  Prize,  she  being  not  able  to  proceed,  and  she 
returned  in  10  days,  and  after  the  canvas  came  he  could 
not  persuade  the  men  to  carry  her  for  New  England. 

Six  of  the  men  went  and  carried  their  Chests  and  things 
on  board  of  two  Dutch  Sloops  bound  for  Curacoa,  and 
would  not  so  much  as  heel  the  Vessel  or  do  anything.  The 
remainder  of  the  men,  not  being  able  to  bring  the  Ad- 
venture Prize  to  Boston,  the  Narrator  secured  her  in  a 
good  safe  harbour  in  some  part  of  Hispaniola  and  left  her 
in  the  possession  of  M.  Henry  Bolton  of  Antigua,  Mer- 
chant, and  the  Master,  and  three  of  the  old  men,  and  15 
or  16  of  the  men  that  belonged  to  the  said  sloop,  St.  An- 
thony, and  a  Brigantine  belonging  to  one  Burt  of  Curacoa. 

That  the  Narrator  bought  the  said  Sloop,  St.  Anthony, 
of  Mr.  Bolton,  for  the  Owners'  account,  after  he  had  given 
directions  to  the  said  Bolton  to  be  careful  of  the  Ship  and 
lading  and  persuaded  him  to  stay  three  months  till  he 
returned.  And  he  then  made  the  best  of  his  way  for 
New  York  where  he  heard  the  Earl  of  Bellomont  was, 
who  was  principally  concerned  in  the  Adventure  Galley, 
and  hearing  his  Lordship  was  at  Boston,  came  thither  and 


112         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

has  now  been  45  days  from  the  said  Ship.  Further,  the 
Narrator  saith  that  the  said  ship  was  left  at  St.  Katharine 
on  the  southeast  part  of  Hispaniola,  about  three  Leagues 
to  leeward  of  the  westerly  end  of  Savano.  Whilst  he  lay 
at  Hispaniola  he  traded  with  Mr.  Henry  Bolton  of  Antigua 
and  Mr.  William  Burt  of  Curacoa,  Merchants,  to  the  value 
of  Eleven  Thousand  Two  Hundred  Pieces  of  Eight, 
whereof  he  received  the  Sloop  Antonio  at  3000  Ps.  of 
eight,  and  Four  Thousand  Two  Hundred  Ps.  of  Eight  in 
Bills  of  Lading  drawn  by  Bolton  and  Burt  upon  Messers. 
Gabriel  and  Lemont,  Merchants,  in  Curacoa,  made  payable 
to  Mr.  Burt  who  went  himself  to  Curacoa,  and  the  value 
of  Four  Thousand  Pieces  of  Eight  more  in  dust  and  bar 
gold.  Which  gold,  with  some  more  traded  for  at  Mada- 
gascar, being  Fifty  pounds  weight  or  upwards  in  quantity, 
the  Narrator  left  in  custody  of  Mr.  Gardiner  of  Gardiner's 
Island,  near  the  eastern  end  of  Long  Island,  fearing  to 
bring  it  about  by  sea. 

It  is  made  up  in  a  bagg  put  into  a  little  box,  lockt  and 
nailed,  corded  about  and  sealed.  The  Narrator  saith  he 
took  no  receipt  for  it  of  Mr.  Gardiner.  The  gold  that  was 
seized  at  Mr.  Campbell's,  the  Narrator  traded  for  at 
Madagascar,  with  what  came  out  of  the  Galley.  He 
saith  that  he  carried  in  the  Adventure  Galley  from  New 
York  154  men,  seventy  whereof  came  out  of  England 
with  him. 

Some  of  his  Sloop's  company  put  two  bails  of  Goods  on 
store  at  Gardiner's  Island,  being  their  own  property.  The 
Narrator  delivered  a  chest  of  Goods,  Vizt;  Muslins, 
Latches,  Romals,  and  flowered  silk  unto  Mr.  Gardiner  of 
Gardiner's  Island  to  be  kept  there  for  him.  He  put  no 
goods  on  shore  anywhere  else.  Several  of  his  company 
landed  their  Chests  and  other  goods  at  several  places. 

Further  saith  he  delivered  a  small  bail  of  coarse  callicoes 
unto  a  Sloopman  of  Rhode  Island  that  he  had  employed 
there.  The  Gold  seized  at  Mr.  Campbell's,  the  Narrator 
intended  for  presents  to  some  that  he  expected  to  do  him 
kindness. 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     113 

Some  of  his  company  put  their  Chests  and  bails  on  board 
a  New  York  Sloop  lying  at  Gardiner's  Island. 

Wm.  Kidd. 
Presented  and  taken  die  prcedict 
before  his  Exc'y  and  Council 
Addington,  Sec'y. 

More  than  a  year  after  Kidd  had  been  carried  to 
England  with  twelve  of  his  crew,  he  was  arraigned 
for  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey.  Meantime  Lord  Bello- 
mont  had  died  in  Boston.  Trials  for  piracy  were 
common  enough,  but  this  accused  shipmaster  was 
confronted  by  such  an  array  of  titled  big-wigs  and 
court  officials  as  would  have  been  sufficient  to  try 
the  Lord  Chancellor  himself.  For  the  government, 
the  Lord  Chief  Baron,  Sir  Edward  Ward,  presided, 
and  with  him  sat  Sir  Henry  Hatsell,  Baron  of  the 
Exchequer;  Sir  Salathiel  Lovell,  the  Eecorder  of 
London ;  Sir  John  Turton  and  Sir  Henry  Gould,  Jus- 
tices of  the  King's  Bench,  and  Sir  John  Powell,  a 
Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas.  As  counsel  for  the 
prosecution,  there  was  the  Solicitor  General,  Dr. 
Oxenden;  Mr.  Knapp,  Mr.  Corners,  and  Mr.  Camp- 
bell. 

For  Captain  William  Kidd,  there  was  no  one.  By 
the  law  of  England  at  that  time,  a  prisoner  tried  on 
a  criminal  charge  could  employ  no  counsel  and  was 
permitted  to  have  no  legal  advice,  except  only  when 
a  point  of  law  was  directly  involved.  Kidd  had  been 
denied  all  chance  to  muster  witnesses  or  assemble 
documents,  and,  at  that,  the  court  was  so  fearful  of 
failing  to  prove  the  charges  of  piracy  that  it  was 
decided  to  try  him  first  for  killing  his  gunner,  Wil- 
liam Moore,  and  convicting  him  of  murder.  He 
would  be  as  conveniently  dead  if  hanged  for  the  one 
crime  as  for  the  other, 


114         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Now,  it  is  not  impossible  that  Kidd  had  clean  for- 
gotten that  trifling  episode  of  William  Moore.  For 
a  commander  to  knock  down  a  seaman  guilty  of  dis- 
respect or  disobedience  was  as  commonplace  as  eat- 
ing. The  offender  was  lucky  if  he  got  off  no  worse. 
Discipline  in  the  naval  and  merchant  services  was 
barbarously  severe.  Sailors  died  of  flogging  or  keel- 
hauling, or  of  being  triced  up  by  the  thumbs  for  the 
most  trifling  misdemeanors.  As  for  Moore,  he  was 
a  mutineer,  and  an  insolent  rogue  besides,  who  had 
stirred  up  trouble  in  the  crew,  and  nothing  would 
have  been  said  to  any  other  skipper  than  Kidd  for 
shooting  him  or  running  him  through.  However,  let 
the  testimony  tell  its  own  story. 

After  the  Grand  Jury  had  returned  the  bill  of  in- 
dictment for  murder,  the  Clerk  of  Arraignment  said: 

"William  Kidd,  hold  up  thy  hand." 

With  a  pluck  and  persistence  which  must  have  had 
a  certain  pathetic  dignity,  Kidd  began  to  object. 

' '  May  it  please  your  Lordship,  I  desire  you  to  per- 
mit me  to  have  counsel." 

The  Recorder.  "What  would  you  have  counsel 
for?" 

Kidd.  "My  Lord,  I  have  some  matters  of  law  re- 
lating to  the  indictment,  and  I  desire  I  may  have 
counsel  to  speak  to  it." 

Dr.  Oxenden.  "What  matter  of  law  can  you 
have?" 

Clerk  of  Arraignment.  "How  does  he  know  what 
he  is  charged  with?     I  have  not  told  him." 

The  Recorder.  "You  must  let  the  Court  know 
what  these  matters  of  law  are  before  you  can  have 
counsel  assigned  you." 

Kidd.  "They  be  matters  of  law,  my  Lord." 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     115 

The  Recorder.  "Mr.  Kidd,  do  you  know  what  you 
mean  by  matters  of  law  f ' ' 

Kidd.  "I  know  what  I  mean.  I  desire  to  put  off 
my  trial  as  long  as  I  can,  till  I  can  get  my  evidence 
ready. ' ' 

The  Recorder:  "Mr.  Kidd,  you  had  best  mention 
the  matter  of  law  you  would  insist  on. ' ' 

Dr.  Oxenden.  "It  cannot  be  matter  of  law  to  put 
off  your  trial,  but  matter  of  fact." 

Kidd.  "I  desire  your  Lordship's  favor.  I  desire 
that  Dr.  Oldish  and  Mr.  Lemmon  here  be  heard  as 
to  my  case  (indicating  lawyers  present  in  court). 

Clerk  of  Arraignment.  "What  can  he  have  counsel 
for  before  he  has  pleaded?" 

The  Recorder.  "Mr.  Kidd,  the  Court  tells  you  it 
shall  be  heard  what  you  have  to  say  when  you  have 
pleaded  to  your  indictment.  If  you  plead  to  it,  if 
you  will,  you  may  assign  matter  of  law,  if  you  have 
any,  but  then  you  must  let  the  Court  know  what  you 
would  insist  on." 

Kidd.  "I  beg  your  Lordship's  patience,  till  I  can 
procure  my  papers.  I  had  a  couple  of  French  passes 
which  I  must  make  use  of,  in  order  to  my  justifi- 
cation." 

The  Recorder.  "This  is  not  matter  of  law.  You 
have  had  long  notice  of  your  trial,  and  might  have 
prepared  for  it.  How  long  have  you  had  notice  of 
your  trial ! ' ' 

Kidd.  "A  matter  of  a  fortnight." 

Dr.  Oxenden.  ' '  Can  you  tell  the  names  of  any  per- 
sons that  you  would  make  use  of  in  your  defense?" 

Kidd.  "I  sent  for  them,  but  I  could  not  have 
them. ' ' 

Dr.  Oxenden.  "Where  were  they  then?" 


116        THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Kidd.  "I  brought  them  to  my  Lord  Bellomont  in 
New  England.' ' 

The  Recorder.  "What  were  their  names?  You 
cannot  tell  without  book.  Mr.  Kidd,  the  Court  sees 
no  reason  to  put  off  your  trial,  therefore  you  must 
plead. ' ' 

Clerk  of  Arraignment.  "William  Kidd,  hold  up 
thy  hand." 

Kidd.  "I  beg  your  Lordship  I  may  have  counsel 
admitted,  and  that  my  trial  may  be  put  off.  I  am 
not  really  prepared  for  it." 

The  Recorder.  "Nor  never  will,  if  you  could  help 
it." 

Dr.  Oxenden.  "Mr.  Kidd,  you  have  had  reason- 
able notice,  and  you  know  you  must  be  tried,  and 
therefore  you  cannot  plead  you  are  not  ready. ' ' 

Kidd.  "If  your  Lordships  permit  those  papers  to 
be  read,  they  will  justify  me.  I  desire  my  counsel 
may  be  heard." 

Mr.  Coniers.  "We  admit  of  no  counsel  for  him." 

The  Recorder.  "There  is  no  issue  joined,  and 
therefore  there  can  be  no  counsel  assigned.  Mr. 
Kidd,  you  must  plead. ' ' 

Kidd.  "I  cannot  plead  till  I  have  those  papers 
that  I  insisted  upon." 

Mr.  Lemmon.  "He  ought  to  have  his  papers  de- 
livered to  him,  because  they  are  very  material  for  his 
defense.  He  has  endeavored  to  have  them,  but 
could  not  get  them. ' ' 

Mr.  Coniers.  "You  are  not  to  appear  for  anyone, 
(Mr.  Lemmon)  till  he  pleads,  and  that  the  Court  as- 
signs you  for  his  counsel. ' ' 

The  Recorder.  "They  would  only  put  off  the 
trial." 

Mr.  Coniers.  "He  must  plead  to  the  indictment." 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     117 

Clerk  of  Arraignment.  ''Make  silence.' ' 

Kidd.  "My  papers  are  all  seized,  and  I  cannot 
make  my  defense  without  them.  I  desire  my  trial 
may  be  put  off  till  I  can  have  them." 

The  Recorder.  "The  Court  is  of  opinion  that  they 
ought  not  to  stay  for  all  your  evidence;  it  may  be 
they  will  never  come.  You  must  plead ;  and  then  if 
you  can  satisfy  the  Court  that  there  is  a  reason  to 
put  off  the  trial,  you  may." 

Kidd.  "My  Lord,  I  have  business  in  law,  and  I 
desire  counsel." 

The  Recorder.  "The  course  of  Courts  is,  when 
you  have  pleaded,  the  matter  of  trial  is  next ;  if  you 
can  then  show  there  is  cause  to  put  off  the  trial,  you 
may,  but  now  the  matter  is  to  plead." 

Kidd.  "It  is  a  hard  case  when  all  these  things 
shall  be  kept  from  me,  and  I  am  forced  to  plead." 

The  Recorder.  "If  he  will  not  plead,  there  must 
be  judgment. ' ' 

Kidd.  "Would  you  have  me  plead  and  not  have 
my  vindication  by  me  ? ' ' 

Clerk  of  Arraignment.  "Will  you  plead  to  the  in* 
dictment?" 

Kidd.  "I  would  beg  that  I  may  have  my  papers 
for  my  vindication." 

It  is  very  obvious  that  up  to  this  point  Kidd  was 
concerned  only  with  the  charges  of  piracy,  and  at- 
tached no  importance  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been 
indicted  for  the  murder  of  his  gunner.  Regarding 
the  matter  of  the  French  passes,  Kidd  was  des- 
perately in  earnest.  He  knew  their  importance,  nor 
was  he  begging  for  them  as  a  subterfuge  to  gain 
time.  He  had  been  employed  as  a  privateering  com- 
mander against  the  French  in  the  West  Indies  and 
on  the  New  England  coast,  as  the  documents  of  the 


118         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Provincial  Government  have  already  shown.  It  is 
fair  to  assume  that  he  knew  the  rules  of  the  game  and 
the  kind  of  papers  necessary  to  make  a  prize  a  lawful 
capture  by  the  terms  of  the  English  privateering 
commission  which  he  held.  But  his  efforts  to  intro- 
duce this  evidence  which  had  been  secured  by  Bello- 
mont  and  forwarded  to  the  authorities  in  London, 
were  of  no  avail.  Compelled  to  plead  to  the  indict- 
ment for  murder,  Kidd  swore  that  he  was  not  guilty, 
and  the  trial  then  proceeded  under  the  direction  of 
Lord  Chief  Baron  Ward.  Dr.  Oldish,  who  sought  to 
be  assigned,  with  Mr.  Lemmon,  as  counsel  for  the 
prisoner,  was  not  to  be  diverted  from  the  main  is- 
sue, and  he  boldly  struck  in. 

1 '  My  Lord,  it  is  very  fit  his  trial  should  be  delayed 
for  some  time  because  he  wants  some  papers  very 
necessary  for  his  defense.  It  is  very  true  he  is 
charged  with  piracies  in  several  ships,  but  they  had 
French  passes  when  the  seizure  was  made.  Now,  if 
there  were  French  passes,  it  was  a  lawful  seizure.' ' 

Mr.  Justice  Powell.  "Have  you  those  passes?" 

Kidd.  "They  were  taken  from  me  by  my  Lord 
Bellomont,  and  these  passes  would  be  my  defense." 

Dr.  Oldish.  "If  those  ships  that  he  took  had 
French  passes,  there  was  just  cause  of  seizure,  and 
it  will  excuse  him  from  piracy. ' ' 

Kidd.  "They  were  taken  from  me  by  my  Lord 
Bellomont  and  those  passes  show  there  was  just 
cause  of  seizure.  That  we  will  prove  as  clear  as 
the  day." 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron.  "What  ship  was  that 
which  had  the  French  passes?" 

Mr.  Lemmon.  "The  same  he  was  in;  the  same  he 
is  indicted  for. ' ' 

Clerk  of  Arraignment.  "Let  all  stand  aside  but 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     119 

Captain  Kidd.  William  Kidd,  you  are  now  to  be 
tried  on  the  Bill  of  Murder ;  the  jury  is  going  to  be 
sworn.  If  you  have  any  cause  of  exception,  you  may 
speak  to  them  as  they  come  to  the  Book. " 

Kidd.  "I  challenge  none.  I  know  nothing  to  the 
contrary  but  they  are  honest  men. ' ' 

The  first  witness  for  the  Crown  was  Joseph 
Palmer,  of  the  Adventure  Galley  (who  had  been 
captured  by  Bellomont  in  Khode  Island  and  who 
had  informed  him  of  the  incident  of  the  death  of 
Moore,  the  gunner).    He  testified  as  follows: 

"  About  a  fortnight  before  this  accident  fell  out, 
Captain  Kidd  met  with  a  ship  on  that  coast  (Mala- 
bar) that  was  called  the  Loyal  Captain.  And  about 
a  fortnight  after  this,  the  gunner  was  grinding  a 
chisel  aboard  the  Adventure,  on  the  high  seas,  near 
the  coast  of  Malabar  in  the  East  Indies." 

Mr.  Coniers.  "What  was  the  gunner's  name!" 

Palmer.  "William  Moore.  And  Captain  Kidd 
came  and  walked  on  the  deck,  and  walked  by  this 
Moore,  and  when  he  came  to  him,  says,  'How  could 
you  have  put  me  in  a  way  to  take  this  ship  (Loyal 
Captain)  and  been  clear?'  'Sir,'  says  William 
Moore, '  I  never  spoke  such  a  word,  nor  thought  such 
a  thing.'  Upon  which  Captain  Kidd  called  him  a 
lousie  dog.  And  says  William  Moore,  'If  I  am  a 
lousie  dog,  you  have  made  me  so.  You  have  brought 
me  to  ruin  and  many  more. '  Upon  him  saying  this, 
says  Captain  Kidd,  'Have  I  ruined  you,  ye  dog?'  and 
took  a  bucket  bound  with  iron  hoops  and  struck  him 
on  the  right  side  of  the  head,  of  which  he  died  next 
day." 

Mr.  Coniers.  "Tell  my  Lord  what  passed  next 
after  the  blow." 

Palmer.  ' '  He  was  let  down  the  gun-room,  and  the 


120         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

gunner  said  '  Farewell,  Farewell !  Captain  Kidd  has 
given  me  my  last.'  And  Captain  Kidd  stood  on  the 
deck  and  said,  'You're  a  villain.'  " 

Robert  Bradingham,  who  had  been  the  surgeon  of 
the  Adventure  Galley,  then  testified  that  the  wound 
was  small  but  that  the  gunner's  skull  had  been  frac- 
tured. 

Mr.  Cooper.  "Had  you  any  discourse  with  Cap- 
tain Kidd  after  this,  about  the  man's  death?" 

Bradingham.  "Some  time  after  this,  about  two 
months,  by  the  coast  of  Malabar,  Captain  Kidd  said, 
'I  do  not  care  so  much  for  the  death  of  my  gunner, 
as  for  other  passages  of  my  voyage,  for  I  have  good 
friends  in  England,  who  will  bring  me  off  for  that. '  ' ' 

With  this,  the  prosecution  rested,  and  the  Lord 
Chief  Baron  addressed  Kidd. 

"Then  you  may  make  your  defense.  You  are 
charged  with  murder,  and  you  have  heard  the  evi- 
dence that  has  been  given.  What  have  you  to  say 
for  yourself!" 

Kidd.  "I  have  evidence  to  prove  it  is  no  such 
thing,  if  they  may  be  admitted  to  come  hither.  My 
Lord,  I  will  tell  you  what  the  case  was.  I  was  com- 
ing up  within  a  league  of  the  Dutchman  (the  Loyal 
Captain),  and  some  of  my  men  were  making  a  mutiny 
about  taking  her,  and  my  gunner  told  the  people  he 
could  put  the  captain  in  a  way  to  take  the  ship  and 
be  safe.  Says  I,  'How  will  you  do  that?'  The  gun- 
ner answered,  'We  will  get  the  captain  and  men 
aboard. '  *  And  what  then  ? '  '  We  will  go  aboard  the 
ship  and  plunder  her  and  we  will  have  it  under  their 
hands  that  we  did  not  take  her.'  Says  I,  'This  is 
Judas-like.  I  dare  not  do  such  a  thing.'  Says  he, 
4 We  may  do  it.  We  are  beggars  already.'  'Why,' 
says  I,  'may  we  take  the  ship  because  we  are  poor?' 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     121 

Upon  this  a  mutiny  arose,  so  I  took  up  a  bucket  and 
just  throwed  it  at  him,  and  said  'You  are  a  rogue 
to  make  such  a  notion. '     This  I  can  prove,  my  Lord. ' ' 

Thereupon  Kidd  called  Abel  Owens,  one  of  his 
sailors,  and  asked  him : 

1 '  Can  you  tell  which  way  this  bucket  was  thrown  f ' ' 

Mr.  Justice  Powell  (to  Owens).  "What  was  the 
provocation  for  throwing  the  bucket?" 

Owens.  "I  was  in  the  cook-room,  and  hearing  some 
difference  on  the  deck,  I  came  out,  and  the  gunner 
was  grinding  a  chisel  on  the  grind-stone,  and  the 
captain  and  he  had  some  words,  and  the  gunner  said 
to  the  captain,  'You  have  brought  us  to  ruin,  and 
we  are  desolate.'  'And,'  says  he,  (the  captain)  have 
I  brought  you  to  ruin?  I  have  not  brought  you  to 
ruin.  I  have  not  done  an  ill  thing  to  ruin  you ;  you 
are  a  saucy  fellow  to  give  me  these  words.'  And 
then  he  took  up  the  bucket,  and  did  give  him  the 
blow." 

Kidd.  ' '  Was  there  a  mutiny  among  the  men  1 ' ' 

Owens.  "Yes,  and  the  bigger  part  was  for  taking 
the  ship,  and  the  captain  said, '  You  that  will  take  the 
Dutchman,  you  are  the  strongest,  you  may  do  what 
you  please.  If  you  will  take  her,  you  may  take  her, 
but  if  you  go  from  aboard  here,  you  shall  never  come 
aboard  again.'  " 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron.  "When  was  this  mutiny 
you  speak  of?" 

Owens.  "When  we  were  at  sea,  about  a  month  be- 
fore this  man's  death." 

Kidd.  "Call  Richard  Barlicorn." 

(Barlicorn  was  an  apprentice  who  has  been  men- 
tioned in  the  inventory  of  the  Sloop  San  Antonio.) 

Kidd.  "What  was  the  reason  the  blow  was  given 
to  the  gunner?" 


122         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Barlicom.  "At  first,  when  you  met  with  the  ship 
{Loyal  Captain)  there  was  a  mutiny,  and  two  or 
three  of  the  Dutchmen  came  aboard,  and  some  said 
she  was  a  rich  vessel,  and  they  would  take  her.  And 
the  captain  (Kidd)  said,  'No,  I  will  not  take  her,'  and 
there  was  a  mutiny  in  the  ship,  and  the  men  said, 
'If  you  will  not,  we  will.'  And  he  said,  'If  you  have 
a  mind,  you  may,  but  they  that  will  not,  come  along 
with  me.'  " 

Kidd.  ' '  Do  you  think  William  Moore  was  one  -of 
those  that  was  for  taking  her? " 

Barlicom.  "Yes.  And  William  Moore  lay  sick  a 
great  while  before  this  blow  was  given,  and  the  doc- 
tor said  when  he  visited  him,  that  this  blow  was  not 
the  cause  of  his  death. ' ' 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron.  "Then  they  must  be  con- 
fronted.    Do  you  hear,  Bradingham,  what  he  says?" 

Bradingham.  "I  deny  this." 

As  for  this  surgeon,  Kidd  swore  that  he  had  been 
a  drunken,  useless  idler  who  would  lay  in  the  hold 
for  weeks  at  a  time.  Seaman  Hugh  Parrott  was 
then  called  and  asked  by  Kidd : 

1  *  Do  you  know  the  reason  why  I  struck  Moore  ? ' ' 

Parrott.  "Yes,  because  you  did  not  take  the  Loyal 
Captain,  whereof  Captain  How  was  commander." 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron.  "Was  that  the  reason  that 
he  struck  Moore,  because  this  ship  was  not  taken  ? ' ' 

Parrott.  "I  shall  tell  you  how  this  happened,  to 
the  best  of  my  knowledge.  My  commander  fortuned 
to  come  up  with  this  Captain  How's  ship  and  some 
were  for  taking  her,  and  some  not.  And  afterwards 
there  was  a  little  sort  of  mutiny,  and  some  rose  in 
arms,  the  greater  part;  and  they  said  they  would 
take  the  ship.  And  the  commander  was  not  for  it, 
and  so  they  resolved  to  go  away  in  the  boat  and  take 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     123 

her.  Captain  Kidd  said, '  If  you  desert  my  ship,  you 
shall  never  come  aboard  again,  and  I  will  force  you 
into  Bombay,  and  I  will  carry  you  before  some  of 
the  Council  there.'  Inasmuch  that  my  commander 
stilled  them  again  and  they  remained  on  board. 
And  about  a  fortnight  afterwards,  there  passed  some 
words  between  this  William  Moore  and  my  com- 
mander, and  then,  says  he  (Moore),  'Captain,  I  could 
have  put  you  in  a  way  to  have  taken  this  ship  and 
been  never  the  worse  for  it.'  He  says,  (Kidd), 
'Would  you  have  had  me  take  this  ship?  I  cannot 
answer  it.  They  are  our  friends,'  and  with  that  I 
went  off  the  deck,  and  I  understood  afterwards  the 
blow  was  given,  but  how  I  cannot  tell." 

Kidd.  "I  have  no  more  to  say,  but  I  had  all  the 
provocation  in  the  world  given  me.  I  had  no  design 
to  kill  him.     I  had  no  malice  or  spleen  against  him." 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron.  "That  must  be  left  to  the 
jury  to  consider  the  evidence  that  has  been  given. 
You  make  out  no  such  matter. ' ' 

Kidd.  "It  was  not  designedly  done,  but  in  my  pas- 
sion, for  which  I  am  heartily  sorry. ' ' 

Kidd  was  permitted  to  introduce  no  evidence  as  to 
his  previous  good  reputation,  and  the  Court  con- 
cluded that  it  had  heard  enough.  Lord  Chief  Baron 
Ward  thereupon  delivered  himself  of  an  exceedingly 
adverse  charge  to  the  jury,  virtually  instructing  them 
to  find  the  prisoner  guilty  of  murder,  which  was 
promptly  done.  Having  made  sure  of  sending  him 
to  Execution  Dock,  the  Court  then  proceeded  to  try 
him  for  piracy,  which  seems  to  have  been  a  super- 
fluous and  unnecessary  pother.  Kidd  declared,  when 
this  second  trial  began : 

"It  is  vain  to  ask  any  questions.  It  is  hard  that 
the  life  of  one  of  the  King's  subjects  should  be  taken 


124         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

away  upon  the  perjured  oaths  of  such  villains  as 
these  (Bradingham  and  Palmer).  Because  I  would 
not  yield  to  their  wishes  and  turn  pirate,  they  now 
endeavor  to  prove  I  was  one.  Bradingham  is  saving 
his  life  to  take  away  mine. ' ' 

The  Crown  proved  the  capture  of  the  two  ships 
belonging  to  the  Great  Mogul,  and  an  East  Indian 
merchant,  representing  the  merchants,  testified  as  to 
the  value  of  the  lading  and  the  regularity  of  the 
ship's  papers.  Kidd  challenged  this  evidence,  and 
once  more  pleaded  with  the  Court  that  he  be  allowed 
to  bring  forward  the  French  passes.  He  asserted 
that  the  Quedah  Merchant  had  a  French  Commission, 
and  that  her  master  was  a  tavern  keeper  of  Surat. 
That  he  told  the  truth,  the  accompanying  photograph 
of  the  said  document  bears  belated  witness.  The 
Lord  Chief  Baron  put  his  finger  on  the  weak  point  of 
the  case  by  asking  to  know  why  Kidd  had  not  taken 
the  ship  to  port  to  be  lawfully  condemned  as  a  prize, 
as  demanded  by  the  terms  of  his  commission  from 
the  King.  To  this  Kidd  replied  that  his  crew  were 
mutinous,  and  the  Adventure  Galley  unseaworthy, 
for  which  reasons  he  made  for  the  nearest  harbor  of 
Madagascar.  There  his  men,  to  the  number  of 
ninety  odd,  mutinied  and  went  over  to  the  pirate 
Culliford  in  the  Mocha  Frigate.  He  was  left  short- 
handed,  his  own  ship  was  unfit  to  take  to  sea,  so  he 
burned  her,  and  transferred  to  the  Quedah  Mer- 
chant, after  which  he  steered  straight  for  Boston  to 
deliver  her  prize  to  Lord  Bellomont,  which  he  would 
have  done  had  he  not  learned  in  the  West  Indies 
that  he  had  been  proclaimed  a  pirate. 

Edward  Davis,  mariner,  confirmed  the  statement 
regarding  the  French  passes,  in  these  words : 

"I  came  home  a  passenger  from  Madagascar  and 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     125 

from  thence  to  Amboyna,  and  there  he  (Kidd)  sent 
his  boat  ashore,  and  there  was  one  that  said  Cap- 
tain Kidd  was  published  a  pirate  in  England,  and 
Captain  Kidd  gave  those  passes  to  him  to  read. 
The  Captain  said  they  were  French  passes." 

Kidd.  ''You  heard  that  one,  Captain  Elms,  say 
they  were  French  passes?" 

Davis.  "Yes,  I  heard  Captain  Elms  say  they  were 
French  passes." 

Mr.  Baron  Hatsell.  "Have  you  any  more  to  say, 
Captain  Kidd?" 

Kidd.  "I  have  some  papers,  but  my  Lord  Bello- 
mont  keeps  them  from  me,  so  that  I  cannot  bring 
them  before  the  Court!" 

Bradingham  and  other  members  of  the  crew  ad- 
mitted that  they  understood  from  Kidd  that  the  cap- 
tured ships  were  sailing  under  French  passes. 
Kidd,  having  been  convicted  of  murder,  was  now 
allowed  to  fetch  in  witnesses  as  to  his  character  as 
a  man  and  a  sailor  previous  to  the  fatal  voyage. 
One  Captain  Humphrey  swore  that  he  had  known 
Capt.  Kidd  in  the  West  Indies  twelve  years  before. 
"You  had  a  general  applause,"  said  he,  "for  what 
you  had  done  from  time  to  time. ' ' 

The  Lord  Chief  Baron.  "That  was  before  he  was 
turned  pirate." 

Captain  Bond  then  declared: 

"I  know  you  were  very  useful  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war  in  the  West  Indies." 

Colonel  Hewson  put  the  matter  more  forcibly  and 
made  no  bones  of  telling  the  Court : 

' '  My  Lord,  he  was  a  mighty  man  there.  He  served 
under  my  command  there.  He  was  sent  to  me  by 
tfc.':  ^rder  of  Colonel  Codrington." 

The  Solicitor  General.  "How  long  was  this  ago?" 


126         .THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Colonel  Hewson.  "About  nine  years  ago.  He  was 
with  me  in  two  engagements  against  the  French, 
and  fought  as  well  as  any  man  I  ever  saw,  accord- 
ing to  the  proportion  of  his  men.  We  had  six 
Frenchmen  (ships)  to  deal  with,  and  we  had  only 
mine  and  his  ship." 

Kidd.  "Do  you  think  I  was  a  pirate?" 

Colonel  Hewson.  "I  knew  his  men  would  have 
gone  a-pirating,  and  he  refused  it,  and  his  men  seized 
upon  his  ship ;  and  when  he  went  this  last  voyage,  he 
consulted  with  me,  and  told  me  they  had  engaged 
him  in  such  an  expedition.  And  I  told  him  that  he 
had  enough  already  and  might  be  content  with  what 
he  had.  And  he  said  that  was  his  own  inclination, 
but  Lord  Bellomont  told  him  if  he  did  not  go  the 
voyage  there  were  great  men  who  would  stop  his 
brigantine  in  the  river  if  he  did  not  go." 

Thomas  Cooper.  "I  was  aboard  the  Lyon  in  the 
West  Indies  and  this  Captain  Kidd  brought  his  ship 
from  a  place  that  belonged  to  the  Dutch  and  brought 
her  into  the  King's  service  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  about  ten  years  ago.  And  he  took  service  under 
the  Colonel  (Hewson),  and  we  fought  Monsieur  Du 
Cass  a  whole  day,  and  I  thank  God  we  got  the  better 
of  him.  And  Captain  Kidd  behaved  very  well  in 
the  face  of  his  enemies. ' ' 

It  may  be  said  also  for  Captain  William  Kidd  that 
he  behaved  very  well  in  the  face  of  the  formidable 
battery  of  legal  adversaries. 

As  a  kind  of  afterthought,  the  jury  found  him 
guilty  of  piracy  along  with  several  of  his  crew, 
Nichols  Churchill,  James  How,  Gabriel  Loff,  Hugh 
Parrott,  Abel  Owens,  and  Darby  Mullins.  Three  of 
those  indicted  were  set  free,  Eichard  Barlicorn,  Rob- 
ert Lumley,  and  William  Jenkins,  because  they  were 


CAPTAIN  KIDD,  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH     127 

able  to  prove  themselves  to  have  been  bound  sea- 
men apprentices,  duly  indentured  to  officers  of  the 
ship  who  were  responsible  for  their  deeds.  Before 
sentence  was  passed  on  him,  Kidd  said  to  the  Court : 

1  'My  Lords,  it  is  a  very  hard  judgment.  For  my 
part  I  am  the  most  innocent  person  of  them  all." 

Execution  Dock  long  since  vanished  from  old  Lon- 
don, but  tradition  has  survived  along  the  waterfront 
of  Wapping  to  fix  the  spot,  and  the  worn  stone  stair- 
case known  as  the  "Pirates'  Stairs,"  still  leads  down 
to  the  river,  and  down  these  same  steps  walked  Cap- 
tain William  Kidd.  The  Gentleman's  Magazine 
(London)  for  1796  describes  the  ancient  procedure, 
just  as  it  had  befallen  Captain  Kidd  and  his  men : 

"Feb.  4th.  This  morning,  a  little  after  ten  o'clock, 
Colley,  Cole,  and  Blanche,  the  three  sailors  convicted 
of  the  murder  of  Captain  Little,  were  brought  out  of 
Newgate,  and  conveyed  in  solemn  procession  to  Exe- 
cution Dock,  there  to  receive  the  punishment  awarded 
by  law.  On  the  cart  on  which  they  rode  was  an  ele- 
vated stage ;  on  this  were  seated  Colley,  the  principal 
instigator  in  the  murder,  in  the  middle,  and  his  two 
wretched  instruments,  the  Spaniard  Blanche,  and  the 
Mulatto  Cole,  on  each  side  of  him;  and  behind,  on 
another  seat,  two  executioners. 

' '  Colley  seemed  in  a  state  resembling  that  of  a  man 
stupidly  intoxicated,  and  scarcely  awake,  and  the 
two  discovered  little  sensibility  on  this  occasion,  nor 
to  the  last  moment  of  their  existence,  did  they,  as  we 
hear,  make  any  confession.  They  were  turned  off 
about  a  quarter  before  twelve  in  the  midst  of  an  im- 
mense crowd  of  spectators.  On  the  way  to  the  place 
of  execution,  they  were  preceded  by  the  Marshall 
of  the  Admiralty  in  his  carriage,  the  Deputy  Mar- 
shall, bearing  the  silver  oar,  and  the  two  City  Mar- 


128         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

shals  on  horseback,  Sheriff's  officers,  etc.  The 
whole  cavalcade  was  conducted  with  great  solem- 
nity." 

John  Taylor,  "the  water  poet,"  who  lived  in  the 
time  of  Captain  Kidd,  wrote  these  doleful  lines, 
which  may  serve  as  a  kind  of  obituary: 

"There  are  inferior  Gallowses  which  bear, 
(According  to  the  season)  twice  a  year; 
And  there 's  a  kind  of  waterish  tree  at  Wapping 
Where  sea-thieves  or  pirates  are  catched  napping." 

Kidd 's  body,  covered  with  tar  and  hung  in  chains, 
was  gibbeted  on  the  shore  of  the  reach  of  the 
Thames  hard  by  Tilbury  Fort,  as  was  the  customary 
manner  of  displaying  dead  pirates  by  way  of  warn- 
ing to  passing  seamen.  His  treasure  was  confis- 
cated by  the  Crown,  and  what  was  left  of  it,  after 
the  array  of  legal  gentlemen  had  been  paid  their 
fees,  was  turned  over  to  Greenwich  Hospital  by 
act  of  Parliament. 

Thus  lived  and  died  a  man,  who,  whatever  may 
have  been  his  faults,  was  unfairly  dealt  with  by  his 
patrons,  misused  by  his  rascally  crew,  and  slandered 
by  credulous  posterity. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE   WONDROUS   FORTUNE   OP   WILLIAM   PHIPS 

The  flaw  in  the  business  of  treasure  hunting,  out- 
side of  fiction,  is  that  the  persons  equipped  with 
the  shovels  and  picks  and  the  ancient  charts  so  sel- 
dom find  the  hidden  gold.  The  energy,  credulity, 
and  persistence  of  these  explorers  are  truly  admir- 
able but  the  results  have  been  singularly  shy  of 
dividends  the  world  over.  There  is  genuine  satis- 
faction, therefore,  in  sounding  the  name  and  fame 
of  the  man  who  not  only  went  roving  in  search 
of  lost  treasure  but  also  found  and  fetched  home 
more  of  it  than  any  other  adventurer  known  to  this 
kind  of  quest. 

On  the  coast  of  Maine,  near  where  the  Kennebec 
flows  past  Bath  into  the  sea,  there  is  a  bit  of  tide 
water  known  as  Montsweag  Bay,  hard  by  the  town 
of  Wiscasset.  Into  this  little  bay  extends  a  minia- 
ture cape,  pleasantly  wooded,  which  is  known  as 
Phips  Point,  and  here  it  was  that  the  most  illustrious 
treasure  seeker  of  them  all,  William  Phips,  was  born 
in  1650.  The  original  Pilgrim  Fathers,  or  some  of 
them,  were  still  hale  and  hearty,  the  innumerable 
ship-loads  of  furniture  brought  over  in  the  May- 
flower had  not  been  scattered  far  from  Plymouth, 
and  this  country  was  so  young  that  the  "  oldest 
families"  of  Boston  were  all  brand-new. 

James  Phips,  father  of  the  great  "William,  was  a 
gun-smith  who  had  come  over  from  Bristol  in  old 

129 


130         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

England  to  better  his  fortunes.  With,  the  true 
pioneering  spirit  he  obtained  a  grant  of  land  and 
built  his  log  cabin  at  the  furthest  outpost  of  settle- 
ment toward  the  eastward.  He  cleared  his  fields, 
raised  some  sheep,  and  betimes  repaired  the  blun- 
derbusses with  which  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  were 
wont  to  pot  the  aborigine.  The  first  biography  of 
William  Phips  was  written  by  Cotton  Mather,  whom 
the  better  you  know  the  more  heartily  you  dislike 
for  a  canting  old  bigot  who  boot-licked  men  of  rank, 
wealth,  or  power,  and  was  infernally  active  in  get- 
ting a  score  of  hapless  men  and  women  hanged  for 
witchcraft  in  Salem. 

Cotton  Mather  deserves  the  thanks  of  all  good 
treasure  seekers,  however,  for  having  given  us  the 
first-hand  story  of  William  Phips  whom  he  knew 
well  and  extravagantly  admired.  In  fact,  after  this 
hero  had  come  sailing  home  with  his  treasures  and 
because  of  these  riches  was  made  Sir  William  Phips 
and  Eoyal  Governor  of  Massachusetts  by  Charles  II, 
he  had  his  pew  in  the  old  North  Church  of  Boston 
of  which  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  was  pastor.  But  this 
is  going  ahead  too  fast,  and  we  must  hark  back  to  the 
humble  beginnings.  "His  faithful  mother,  yet  liv- 
ing," wrote  Mather  in  his  very  curious  Magnolia, 
Christi  Americana,  "had  no  less  than  Twenty-six 
Children,  whereof  Twenty-one  were  Sons:  but 
Equivalent  to  them  all  was  William,  one  of  the 
youngest,  whom  his  Father  dying,  was  left  young 
with  his  mother,  and  with  her  he  lived,  keeping  ye 
Sheep  in  the  Wilderness  until  he  was  Eighteen  Years 
old." 

Then  Willliam  decided  that  the  care  of  the  farm 
and  the  sheep  might  safely  be  left  to  his  twenty 
brothers,  and  he  apprenticed  himself  to   a   ship- 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        131 

wright  who  was  building  on  the  shore  near  the  settle- 
ment those  little  shallops,  pinnaces,  and  sloops  in 
which  our  forefathers  dared  to  trade  up  and  down 
their  own  coasts  and  as  far  as  the  West  Indies,  mere 
cockle-shells  manned  by  seamen  of  astonishing  te- 
merity and  hardihood.  While  at  work  with  hammer 
and  adze,  this  strapping  lump  of  a  lad  listened  to 
the  yarns  of  skippers  who  had  voyaged  to  Jamaica 
and  the  Bahamas,  dodging  French  privateers  or  run- 
ning afoul  of  pirates  who  stripped  them  of  cargo  and 
gear,  and  perhaps  it  was  then  that  he  first  heard  of 
the  treasures  that  had  been  lost  in  wrecked  galleons, 
or  buried  by  buccaneers  of  Hispaniola.  At  any  rate, 
William  Phips  wished  to  see  more  of  the  world  and 
to  win  a  chance  to  go  to  sea  in  a  ship  of  his  own, 
wherefore  he  set  out  for  Boston  after  he  had  served 
his  time,  "having  an  accountable  impulse  upon  his 
mind,  persuading  him,  as  he  would  privately  hint 
unto  some  of  his  friends,  that  he  was  born  to  greater 
matters." 

Twenty-two  years  old,  not  yet  able  to  read  and 
write,  young  Phips  found  work  with  a  ship-carpenter 
and  studied  his  books  as  industriously  as  he  plied  his 
trade.  Soon  he  was  wooing  a  "young  gentlewoman 
of  good  repute,  the  daughter  of  one  Captain  Eoger 
Spencer,"  and  there  was  no  resisting  this  head- 
strong suitor.  They  were  married,  and  shortly  after 
this  important  event  Phips  was  given  a  contract  to 
build  a  ship  at  a  settlement  on  Sheepscot  river,  near 
his  old  home  on  the  Kennebec,  "where  having 
launched  the  ship,"  Cotton  Mather  relates,  "he  also 
provided  a  lading  of  lumber  to  bring  with  him,  which 
would  have  been  to  the  advantage  of  all  concerned. 

"But  just  as  the  ship  was  hardly  finished,  the  bar- 
barous Indians  on  that  river  broke  forth  into  an  open 


132         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

and  cruel  war  -upon  the  English,  and  the  miserable 
people,  surprised  by  so  sudden  a  storm  of  blood,  had 
no  refuge  from  the  infidels  but  the  ship  now  finish- 
ing in  the  harbor.  Wherefore  he  left  his  intended 
lading  behind  him,  and  instead  thereof  carried  with 
him  his  old  neighbors  and  their  families,  free  of  all 
charges,  to  Boston.  So  the  first  thing  he  did,  after 
he  was  his  own  man,  was  to  save  his  father's  house, 
with  the  rest  of  the  neighborhood  from  ruin;  but 
the  disappointment  which  befell  him  from  the  loss  of 
his  other  lading  plunged  his  affairs  into  greater  em- 
barrassment with  such  as  he  had  employed  him. 
But  he  was  hitherto  no  more  than  beginning  to  make 
scaffolds  for  further  and  higher  actions.  He  would 
frequently  tell  the  gentlewoman,  his  wife,  that  he 
should  yet  be  Captain  of  a  King's  Ship;  that  he 
should  come  to  have  the  command  of  better  men 
than  he  was  now  accounted  himself,  and  that  he 
would  be  the  owner  of  a  fair  brick  house  in  the  Green 
Lane  of  North  Boston."  1 

Inasmuch  as  William  Phips  would  have  been  a  very 
sorry  scoundrel  indeed,  to  run  away„  for  the  sake 
of  a  cargo  of  lumber,  and  leave  his  old  friends  and 
neighbors  to  be  scalped,  it  seems  as  Cotton  Mather 
was  sounding  the  timbrel  of  praise  somewhat  over^ 
loud,  but  the  parson  was  a  fulsome  eulogist,  and  f c\ 
reasons  of  his  own  he  proclaimed  this  roaring,  blus- 
tering seafarer  and  hot-headed  royal  governor  as 
little  lower  than  the  angels.  Here  and  there  Mather 
drew  with  firm  stroke  the  character  of  the  man,  so 
that  we  catch  glimpses  of  him  as  a  live  and  moving 

i  In  order  to  make  easier  reading,  this  and  the  following  extracts 
from  Cotton  Mather's  narrative  are  somewhat  modernized  in  respect 
of  quaint  spelling,  punctuation,  and  the  use  of  capitals,  although, 
of  course,  the  wording  is  unchanged. 


Sir  William  Phips,  first  royal  governor  of  Massachusetts. 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        133 

figure.  ' '  He  was  of  an  inclination  cutting  rather  like 
a  hatchet  than  a  razor;  he  would  propose  very  con- 
siderable matters  and  then  so  cut  through  them  that 
no  difficulties  could  put  by  the  edge  of  his  reso- 
lution. Being  thus  of  the  true  temper  for  doing  of 
great  things,  he  betakes  himself  to  the  sea,  the  right 
scene  for  such  things. ' ' 

Phips  had  no  notion  of  being  a  beggarly  New  Eng- 
land trading  skipper,  carrying  codfish  and  pine 
boards  to  the  West  Indies  and  threshing  homeward 
with  molasses  and  niggers  in  the  hold,  or  coasting  to 
Virginia  for  tobacco.  A  man  of  mettle  won  prizes 
by  bold  strokes  and  large  hazards,  and  treasure 
seeking  was  the  game  for  William.  Among  the  tav- 
erns of  the  Boston  water-front  he  picked  up  tidings 
and  rumors  of  many  a  silver-laden  galleon  of  Spain 
that  had  shivered  her  timbers  on  this  or  that  low- 
lying  reef  of  the  Bahama  Passage  where  there  was 
neither  buoy  nor  lighthouse.  Here  was  a  chance  to 
win  that  "fair  brick  house  in  the  Green  Lane  of 
North  Boston"  and  Phips  busied  himself  with  pick- 
ing up  information  until  he  was  primed  to  make  a 
voyage  of  discovery.  Keeping  his  errand  to  him- 
self, he  steered  for  the  West  Indies,  probably  in  a 
small  chartered  sloop  or  brig,  and  prowled  from  one 
key  and  island  to  another. 

This  was  in  the  year  1681,  and  the  waters  in  which 
Phips  dared  to  venture  were  swarming  with  pirates 
and  buccaneers  who  would  have  cut  his  throat  for  a 
doubloon.  Morgan  had  sacked  Panama  only  eleven 
years  before;  Tortuga,  off  the  coast  of  Hayti,  was 
still  the  haunt  of  as  choice  a  lot  of  cutthroats  as 
ever  sailed  blue  water ;  and  men  who  had  been  plun- 
dering and  killing  with  Pierre  le  Grande,  Bartholo- 
mew Portugez  and  Montbars  the  Exterminator,  were 


134         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

still  at  their  old  trade  afloat.  Mariners  had  not 
done  talking  about  the  exploit  of  L'Ollonais  who  had 
found  three  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
Spanish  treasure  hidden  on  a  key  off  the  coast  of 
Cuba.  He  it  was  who  amused  himself  by  cutting 
out  the  hearts  of  live  Spaniards  and  gnawing  these 
morsels,  or  slicing  off  the  heads  of  a  whole  ship's 
crew  and  drinking  their  blood.  A  rare  one  for  hunt- 
ing buried  treasure  was  this  fiend  of  a  pirate. 
"When  he  took  Maracaibo,  as  Esquemeling  relates  in 
the  story  of  his  own  experiences  as  a  buccaneer, 
"L'Ollonais,  who  never  used  to  make  any  great 
amount  of  murdering,  though  in  cold  blood,  ten  or 
twelve  Spaniards,  drew  his  cutlass  and  hacked  one  to 
pieces  in  the  presence  of  all  the  rest,  saying:  'If  you 
do  not  confess  and  declare  where  you  have  hidden  the 
rest  of  your  goods,  I  will  do  the  like  to  all  your  com- 
panions.' At  last,  amongst  these  horrible  cruelties 
and  inhuman  threats,  one  was  found  who  promised 
to  conduct  him  and  show  the  place  where  the  rest 
of  the  Spaniards  were  hidden.  But  those  that  were 
fled,  having  intelligence  that  one  discovered  their 
lurking  holes  to  the  Pirates,  changed  the  place,  and 
buried  all  the  remnant  of  their  riches  underground ; 
insomuch  that  the  Pirates  could  not  find  them  out, 
unless  some  other  person  of  their  own  party  should 
reveal  them." 

From  this  first  voyage  undertaken  by  Phips  he 
escaped  with  his  skin  and  a  certain  amount  of  treas- 
ure, "what  just  served  him  a  little  to  furnish  him 
for  a  voyage  to  England,"  says  Mather.  The  im- 
portant fact  was  that  he  had  found  what  he  sought 
and  knew  where  there  was  a  vast  deal  more  of  it. 
A  large  ship,  well  armed  and  manned,  was  needed  to 
bring  away  the  booty,  and  Captain  William  Phips  in- 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        135 

tended  to  find  backing  in  London  for  the  adventure. 
He  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  "a  vessel  not  much  un- 
like that  which  the  Dutchmen  stamped  on  their  first 
coin,"  and  no  sooner  had  his  stubby,  high-pooped 
ark  of  a  craft  cast  anchor  in  the  Thames  than  he 
was  buzzing  ashore  with  his  tale  of  the  treasure 
wreck. 

It  was  no  less  a  person  than  the  king  himself 
whom  Phips  was  bent  on  enlisting  as  a  partner,  and 
he  was  not  to  be  driven  from  Whitehall  by  lords  or 
flunkies.  "With  bulldog  persistence  he  held  to  his 
purpose  month  after  month,  until  almost  a  year  had 
passed.  At  length,  through  the  friends  he  had  made 
at  Court,  he  gained  the  ear  of  Charles  II,  and  that 
gay  monarch  was  pleased  to  take  a  fling  at  treasure 
hunting  as  a  sporting  proposition,  with  an  eye  also  to 
a  share  of  the  plunder. 

He  gave  Phips  a  frigate  of  the  king's  navy,  the 
Rose  of  eighteen  guns  and  ninety-five  men,  which 
had  been  captured  from  the  Algerine  corsairs.  As 
"Captain  of  a  King's  Ship,"  he  recruited  a  crew  of 
all  sorts,  mostly  hard  characters,  and  sailed  from 
London  in  September,  1683,  bound  first  to  Boston, 
and  thence  to  find  the  treasure.  Alas,  for  the  cloak 
of  piety  with  which  Cotton  Mather  covered  William 
Phips  from  head  to  heels.  Other  accounts  show  con- 
vincingly that  he  was  a  bullying,  profane,  and  god- 
less sea  dog,  yet  honest  withal,  and  as  brave  as  a 
lion,  an  excellent  man  to  have  at  your  elbow  in  a  tight 
pinch,  or  to  be  in  charge  of  the  quarter-deck  in  a  gale 
of  wind.  The  real  Phips  is  a  more  likeable  character 
than  the  stuffed  image  that  Cotton  Mather  tried  to 
make  of  him. 

While  in  Boston  harbor  in  the  Rose,  Captain  Phips 
carried  things  with  a  high  hand.     Another  skipper 


136         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

had  got  wind  of  the  treasure  and  was  about  to  make 
sail  for  the  West  Indies  in  a  ship  called  the  Good  In- 
tent. Phips  tried  to  bluff  him,  then  to  frighten  him, 
and  finally  struck  a  partnership  so  that  the  two  ves- 
sels sailed  in  company.  Eefusing  to  show  the  Boston 
magistrates  his  papers,  Phips  was  haled  to  court 
where  he  abused  the  bench  in  language  blazing  with 
deep-sea  oaths,  and  was  fined  several  hundred 
pounds.  His  sailors  got  drunk  ashore  and  fought 
the  constables  and  cracked  the  heads  of  peaceable 
citizens.  Staid  Boston  was  glad  when  the  Rose  frig- 
ate and  her  turbulent  company  bore  away  for  the 
West  Indies. 

There  was  something  wrong  with  Phip's  informa- 
tion or  the  Spanish  wreck  had  been  cleaned  of  her 
treasure  before  he  found  the  place.  The  Rose  and 
the  Good  Intent  lay  at  the  edge  of  a  reef  somewhere 
near  Nassau  for  several  months,  sending  down  native 
divers  and  dredging  with  such  scanty  returns  that 
the  crew  became  mutinous  and  determined  on  a  pro- 
gram very  popular  in  those  days.  Armed  with  cut- 
lasses, they  charged  aft  and  demanded  of  Phips  that 
he  "join  them  in  running  away  with  the  ship  to  drive 
a  trade  of  piracy  in  the  South  Seas.  Captain  Phips 
.  .  .  with  a  most  undaunted  fortitude,  rushed  in 
upon  them,  and  with  the  blows  of  his  bare  hands 
felled  many  of  them  and  quelled  all  the  rest. ' ' 

It  became  necessary  to  careen  the  Rose  and  clean 
the  planking  all  fouled  with  tropical  growth,  and  she 
was  beached  on  "a  desolate  Spanish  island."  The 
men  were  given  shore  liberty,  all  but  eight  or  ten, 
and  the  rogues  were  no  sooner  out  of  the  ship  than 
"  they  all  entered  into  an  agreement  which  they 
signed  in  a  ring  (a  round-robin),  that  about  seven 
o'clock  that  evening  they  would  seize  the  captain 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        137 

and  those  eight  or  ten  which  they  knew  to  be  true 
to  him,  and  leave  them  to  perish  on  the  island,  and 
so  be  gone  away  into  the  South  Seas  to  seek  their 
fortune.  .  .  .  These  knaves,  considering  that 
they  should  want  a  carpenter  with  them  in  their 
villainous  expedition,  sent  a  messenger  to  fetch  unto 
them  the  carpenter  who  was  then  at  work  upon  the 
vessel ;  and  unto  him  they  showed  their  articles ;  tell- 
ing him  what  he  must  look  for  if  he  did  not  subscribe 
among  them. 

"The  carpenter,  being  an  honest  fellow,  did  with 
much  importunity  prevail  for  one  half  hour's  time 
to  consider  the  matter ;  and  returning  to  work  upon 
the  vessel,  with  a  spy  by  them  set  upon  him,  he 
feigned  himself  taken  with  a  fit  of  the  collick,  for  the 
relief  whereof  he  suddenly  ran  into  the  captain  in  the 
great  cabin  for  a  dram.  Where,  when  he  came,  his 
business  was  only  in  brief  to  tell  the  captain  of  the 
horrible  distress  which  he  has  fallen  into;  but  the 
captain  bid  him  as  briefly  return  to  the  rogues  in  the 
woods  and  sign  their  articles,  and  leave  him  to  pro- 
vide for  the  rest. 

1 '  The  carpenter  was  no  sooner  gone  than  Captain 
Phips,  calling  together  the  few  friends  that  were  left 
him  aboard,  whereof  the  gunner  was  one,  demanded 
of  them  whether  they  would  stand  by  him  in  this 
extremity,  whereto  they  replied  they  would  stand 
by  him  if  he  could  save  them,  and  he  answered,  '  By 
the  help  of  God,  he  did  not  fear  it.'  All  their  pro- 
visions had  been  carried  ashore  to  a  tent  made  for 
that  purpose,  about  which  they  had  placed  several 
great  guns,  to  defend  it  in  case  of  any  assault  from 
Spaniards.  Wherefore  Captain  Phips  immediately 
ordered  those  guns  to  be  silently  drawn  and  turned ; 
and  so  pulling  up  the  bridge,  he  charged  his  great 


138         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

guns  aboard  and  brought  them  to  bear  on  every  side 
of  the  tent. 

"By  tins  time  the  army  of  rebels  came  out  of  the 
woods ;  but  as  they  drew  near  to  the  tent  of  provisions 
they  saw  such  a  change  of  circumstances  that  they 
cried  out,  We  are  betrayed!  And  they  were  soon 
confirmed  in  it  when  they  heard  the  captain  with 
a  stern  fury  call  to  them,  Stand  off,  ye  wretches,  at 
your  peril.  He  quickly  cast  them  into  more  than 
ordinary  confusion  when  they  saw  him  ready  to  fire 
his  great  guns  upon  them. 

"And  when  he  had  signified  unto  them  his  resolve 
to  abandon  them  unto  all  the  desolation  which  they 
had  proposed  for  him,  he  caused  the  bridge  to  be 
again  laid,  and  his  men  began  to  take  the  provisions 
on  board.  When  the  wretches  beheld  what  was  com- 
ing upon  them,  they  fell  to  very  humble  entreaties; 
and  at  last  fell  down  upon  their  knees  protesting  that 
they  never  had  anything  against  him,  except  only  his 
unwillingness  to  go  away  with  the  King's  ship  upon 
the  South  Sea  design.  But  upon  all  other  accounts 
they  would  choose  rather  to  live  and  die  with  him 
than  with  any  man  in  the  world.  However,  when  they 
saw  how  much  he  was  dissatisfied  at  it,  they  would 
insist  upon  it  no  more,  and  humbly  begged  his  par- 
don. And  when  he  judged  that  he  had  kept  them  on 
their  knees  long  enough,  he  having  first  secured  their 
arms,  received  them  aboard,  but  he  immediately 
weighed  anchor  and  arriving  at  Jamaica,  turned 
them  off." 

This  is  a  very  proper  incident  to  have  happened 
in  a  hunt  for  hidden  treasure,  and  Cotton  Mather 
tells  it  well.  One  forgives  Phips  for  damning  the 
eyes  of  the  Boston  magistrates,  and  likely  enough 
they  deserved  it,  when  it  is  recalled  that  the  witch- 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        139 

craft  trials  were  held  only  a  few  years  later.  Hav- 
ing rid  himself  of  the  mutineers,  Captain  Phips 
shipped  other  scoundrels  in  their  stead,  there  being 
small  choice  at  Jamaica  where  every  other  man  had 
been  pirating  or  was  planning  to  go  again.  His 
first  quest  for  treasure  had  been  a  failure,  but  he 
was  not  the  man  to  quit,  and  so  he  filled  away  for 
Hispaniola,  now  Hayti  and  San  Domingo,  where 
every  bay  and  reef  had  a  treasure  story  of  its  own. 

The  small  island  of  Tortuga  off  that  coast  had 
long  been  the  headquarters  of  the  most  successful 
pirates  and  buccaneers  of  those  seas,  and  Frederick 
A.  Ober,  who  knows  the  West  Indies  as  well  as  any 
living  man,  declares  not  only  that  Cuba,  the  Isle  of 
Pines,  Jamaica,  and  Hispaniola  are  girdled  with 
Spanish  wrecks  containing  ' '  as  yet  unrecovered  mil- 
lions and  millions  in  gold  and  silver,"  but  also  that 
''during  the  successive  occupancies  of  Tortuga  by 
the  various  pirate  bands  great  treasure  was  hidden 
in  the  forest,  and  in  the  caves  with  which  the  island 
abounds.  Now  and  again  the  present  cultivators  of 
Tortuga  find  coins  of  ancient  dates,  fragments  of 
gold  chains,  and  pieces  of  quaint  jewelry  cast  up  by 
the  waves  or  revealed  by  the  shifting  sands. 

"It  was  not  without  reason  that  the  only  harbor 
of  the  buccaneers  was  called  Treasure  Cove,  nor  for 
nothing  that  they  dug  the  deep  caves  deeper,  hol- 
lowing out  lateral  tunnels  and  blasting  holes  beneath 
the  frowning  cliffs.  The  island  now  belongs  to 
Hayti,  the  inhabitants  of  which  have  not  the  requi- 
site sagacity  to  conduct  an  intelligent  search  for  the 
long-buried  treasures;  and  as  they  resent  the  in- 
trusion of  foreigners,  it  is  probable  that  the  bucca- 
neers' spoils  will  remain  an  unknown  quantity  for 
many  years  to  come. ' ' 


140         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Captain  William  Phips  lay  at  anchor  off  one  of 
the  rude  settlements  of  Hispaniola  for  some  time, 
and  his  rough-and-ready  address  won  him  friends, 
among  them  "a  very  old  Spaniard"  who  had  seen 
many  a  galleon  pillaged  by  the  pirates.  From  this 
informant  Phips  "fished  up  a  little  advice  about  the 
true  spot  where  lay  the  wreck  which  he  had  hitherto 
been  seeking  .  .  .  that  it  was  upon  a  reef  of 
shoals  a  few  leagues  to  the  northward  of  Port  de  la 
Plata  upon  Hispaniola,  a  port  so  called,  it  seemed, 
from  the  landing  of  some  of  a  shipwrecked  company, 
with  a  boat  full  of  plate  saved  out  of  their  sunken 
Frigot." 

On  the  very  old  map  of  Hispaniola,  reproduced 
herewith,  this  place  is  indicated  on  the  north  coast 
as  "Port  Plate,"  and  due  north  of  it  is  the  spirited 
drawing  of  a  galleon  which  happens  to  be  very 
nearly  in  the  position  of  the  sunken  treasure  which 
the  old  Spaniard  described  to  Captain  Phips.  The 
Rose  frigate  sailed  in  search  of  the  reef  and  ex- 
plored it  with  much  care  but  failed  to  find  the  wreck. 
Phips  was  confident  that  he  was  on  the  right  track, 
however,  and  decided  to  return  to  England,  refit  and 
ship  a  new  crew.  The  riff-raff  which  he  had  picked 
up  at  Jamaica  in  place  of  the  mutineers  were  hardly 
the  lads  to  be  trusted  with  a  great  store  of  treasure 
on  board. 

At  about  this  time,  Charles  II  quit  his  earthly 
kingdom  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  found  another  kind  of 
treasure  laid  up  for  him.  James  II  needed  all  his 
warships,  and  he  promptly  took  the  Rose  frigate 
from  Captain  Phips  and  set  him  adrift  to  shift  for 
himself.  A  man  of  less  inflexible  resolution  and 
courage  might  have  been  disheartened,  but  Phips 
made  a  louder  noise  than  ever  with  his  treasure 


—    1_    - 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        141 

story,  and  would  not  budge  from  London.  He  was 
put  in  jail,  somehow  got  himself  out,  and  stood  up 
to  his  enemies  and  silenced  them,  all  the  while  seek- 
ing noble  patrons  with  money  to  venture  on  another 
voyage. 

At  length,  and  a  year  had  been  spent  in  this  man- 
ner, Phips  interested  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  son 
of  the  famous  General  Monk  who  had  been  active  in 
restoring  Charles  II  to  the  throne  of  the  Stuarts. 
Several  other  gentlemen  of  the  Court  took  shares  in 
the  speculation,  including  a  naval  man,  Sir  John 
Narborough.  They  put  up  £2,400  to  outfit  a  ship, 
and  the  King  was  persuaded  to  grant  Phips  letters 
of  patent,  or  a  commission  as  a  duly  authorized 
treasure  seeker,  in  return  for  which  favor  His  Maj- 
esty was  to  receive  one-tenth  of  the  booty.  To  Phips 
was  promised  a  sixteenth  of  what  he  should  recover. 

This  enterprise  was  conceived  in  1686,  and  was  so 
singularly  like  the  partnership  formed  ten  years 
later  to  finance  the  cruise  of  Captain  Kidd  after 
pirates'  plunder  that  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  Lord 
Chancellor  Somers,  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  and 
William  III  may  have  been  somewhat  inspired  to 
undertake  this  unlucky  venture  by  the  dazzling  suc- 
cess of  the  Phips  ' '  syndicate. ' ' 

In  a  small  merchantman  called  the  James  and 
Mary,  Captain  Phips  set  sail  from  England  in  1686, 
having  another  vessel  to  serve  as  a  tender.  Arriv- 
ing at  Port  de  la  Plata,  he  hewed  out  a  large  canoe 
from  a  cotton-wood  tree,  l '  so  large  as  to  carry  eight 
or  ten  oars,"  says  Cotton  Mather,  "for  the  making 
of  which  perigua  (as  they  call  it),  he  did,  with  the 
same  industry  that  he  did  everything  else,  employ 
his  own  hand  and  adze,  and  endure  no  little  hard- 
ship, lying  abroad  in  the  woods  many  nights  to- 


142         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

gether."  The  canoe  was  used  by  a  gang  of  native 
divers  quartered  on  board  the  tender.  For  some 
time  they  worked  along  the  edge  of  a  reef  called  the 
Boilers,  guided  by  the  story  of  that  ancient  Span- 
iard, but  found  nothing  to  reward  their  exertions. 

This  crew  was  returning  to  report  to  Captain 
Phips  when  one  of  the  men,  staring  over  the  side 
into  the  wonderfully  clear  water,  spied  a  "sea 
feather"  or  marine  plant  of  uncommon  beauty 
growing  from  what  appeared  to  be  a  rock.  An  In- 
dian was  sent  down  to  fetch  it  as  a  souvenir  of  the 
bootless  quest,  that  they  might,  however,  carry  home 
something  with  them.  This  diver  presently  bobbed 
up  with  the  sea  feather,  and  therewithal  a  surprising 
story  "that  he  perceived  a  number  of  great  guns  in 
the  watery  world,  where  he  had  found  the  feather; 
the  report  of  which  great  guns  exceedingly  aston- 
ished the  whole  company;  and  at  once  turned  their 
despondencies  for  their  ill  success  into  assurances 
that  they  had  now  lit  upon  the  true  spot  of  ground 
which  they  had  been  looking  for ;  and  they  were  fur- 
ther confirmed  in  these  assurances  when  upon  fur- 
ther diving,  the  Indian  fetched  up  a  Sow  as  they 
styled  it,  or  a  lump  of  silver  worth  perhaps  two  or 
three  hundred  pounds.  Upon  this  they  prudently 
buoyed  the  place,  that  they  might  readily  find  it 
again ;  and  they  went  back  unto  their  Captain  whom 
for  some  while  they  distressed  with  nothing  but  such 
bad  news  as  they  formerly  thought  they  must  have 
carried  him.  Nevertheless,  they  so  slipped  the  Sow 
of  silver  on  one  side  under  the  table  (where  they 
were  now  sitting  with  the  Captain,  and  hearing  him 
express  his  resolutions  to  wait  still  patiently  upon 
the  Providence  of  God  under  these  disappointments), 
that  when  he  should  look  on  one  side,  he  might  see 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        143 

that  Odd  Thing  before  him.  At  last  he  saw  it  and 
cried  out  with  some  agony : 

u  'What  is  this?  Whence  comes  this?'  And  then 
with  changed  countenance  they  told  him  how  and 
where  they  got  it.  Then  said  he,  'Thanks  be  to  God! 
We  are  made!'  And  so  away  they  went,  all  hands 
to  work ;  wherein  they  had  this  further  piece  of  re- 
markable prosperity,  that  whereas  if  they  had  first 
fallen  upon  that  part  of  the  Spanish  wreck  where 
the  Pieces  of  Eight  had  been  stowed  in  bags  among 
the  ballast,  they  had  seen  more  laborious  and  less 
enriching  times  of  it.  Now,  most  happily,  they  first 
fell  upon  that  room  in  the  wreck  where  the  Bullion 
had  been  stored  up,  and  then  so  prospered  in  this  new 
fishery  that  in  a  little  while  they  had  without  the  loss 
of  any  man's  life,  brought  up  Thirty  Two  Tons  of 
silver,  for  it  was  now  come  to  measuring  silver  by 
tons." 

While  these  jolly  treasure  seekers  were  hauling  up 
the  silver  hand  over  fist,  one  Adderley,  a  seaman  of 
the  New  Providence  in  the  Bahamas,  was  hired  with 
his  vessel  to  help  in  the  gorgeous  salvage  operations. 
Alas,  after  Adderley  had  recovered  six  tons  of  bul- 
lion, the  sight  of  so  much  treasure  was  too  much  for 
him.  He  took  his  share  to  the  Bermudas  and  led 
such  a  gay  life  with  it  that  he  went  mad  and  died 
after  a  year  or  two.  Hard-hearted  William  Phips 
was  a  man  of  another  kind,  and  he  drove  his  crew 
of  divers  and  wreckers,  the  sailors  keeping  busy  on 
deck  at  hammering  from  the  silver  bars  a  crust  of 
limestone  several  inches  thick  from  which  "they 
knocked  out  whole  bushels  of  pieces  of  eight  which 
were  grown  thereinto.  Besides  that  incredible 
treasure  of  plate  in  various  forms,  thus  fetched  up 
from  seven  or  eight  fathoms  under  water,  there  were; 


144         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 


vast  riches  of  Gold,  and  Pearls,  and  Jewels,  which 
they  also  lit  upon:  and  indeed  for  a  more  compre- 
hensive invoice,  I  must  but  summarily  say,  All  that 
a  Spanish  frigot  was  to  be  enriched  withal." 

At  length  the  little  squadron  ran  short  of  pro- 
visions, and  most  reluctantly  Captain  Phips  decided 
to  run  for  England  with  his  precious  cargo  and 
return  the  next  year.  He  swore  all  his  men  to  se- 
crecy, believing  that  there  was  more  good  fishing 
at  the  wreck.  During  the  homeward  voyage,  his 
seamen  quite  naturally  yearned  for  a  share  of  the 
profits,  they  having  signed  on  for  monthly  wages. 
They  were  for  taking  the  ship  "to  be  gone  and  lead 
a  short  life  and  a  merry  one,"  but  Phips  argued 
them  out  of  this  rebellious  state  of  mind,  promising 
every  man  a  share  of  the  silver,  and  if  his  em- 
ployers would  not  agree  to  this,  to  pay  them  from 
his  own  pocket. 

Up  the  Thames  sailed  the  lucky  little  merchant- 
man, James  and  Mary  in  the  year  of  1687,  with  three 
hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  freightage  of 
treasure  in  her  hold,  which  would  amount  to  a  good 
deal  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  dollars  nowa- 
days. Captain  Phips  played  fair  with  his  seamen, 
and  they  fled  ashore  in  the  greatest  good  humor  to 
fling  their  pieces  of  eight  among  the  taverns  and 
girls  of  Wapping,  Limehouse,  and  Eotherhite. 
The  King  was  given  his  tenth  of  the  cargo,  and  a 
handsome  fortune  it  was.  To  Phips  fell  his  allotted 
share  of  a  sixteenth,  which  set  him  up  with  sixteen 
thousand  pounds  sterling.  The  Duke  of  Albemarle 
was  so  much  gratified  that  he  sent  to  that  "gentle- 
woman" Mrs.  William  Phips,  a  gold  cup  worth  a 
thousand  pounds.  Phips  showed  himself  an  honest 
man  in  age  when  sea  morals  were  exceeding  lax,  and 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        145 

not  a  penny  of  the  treasure,  beyond  what  was  due 
him,  stuck  to  his  fingers.  Men  of  his  integrity  were 
not  over  plentiful  in  England  after  the  Restoration, 
and  the  King  liked  and  trusted  this  brusque,  stal- 
wart sailor  from  New  England.  At  Windsor  Cas- 
tle he  was  knighted  and  now  it  was  Sir  "William 
Phips,  if  you  please. 

Judge  Sewall's  diary  contains  this  entry,  Friday, 
October  21, 1687: 

"I  went  to  offer  my  Lady  Phips  my  House  by  Mr. 
Moody's  and  to  congratulate  her  preferment.  As  to 
the  former,  she  had  bought  Sam'  Wakefield's  House 
and  Ground  last  night  for  £350.  I  gave  her  a 
Gazette  that  related  her  Husband's  Knighthood, 
which  she  had  not  seen  before;  and  wish'd  this  suc- 
cess might  not  hinder  her  passage  to  a  greater  and 
better  estate.  She  gave  me  a  cup  of  good  Beer  and 
thank 'd  me  for  my  visit." 

Sir  William  would  have  still  another  try  at  the 
wreck,  and  this  time  there  was  no  lack  of  ships  and 
patronage.  A  squadron  was  fitted  out  in  command 
of  Sir  John  Narborough,  and  one  of  the  company 
was  the  Duke  of  Albemarle.  They  made  their  way 
to  the  reef,  but  the  remainder  of  the  treasure  had 
been  lifted,  and  the  expedition  sailed  home  empty- 
handed.  Adderley  of  New  Providence  had  babbled 
in  his  cups  and  one  of  his  men  had  been  bribed  to 
take  a  party  of  Bermuda  wreckers  to  the  reef.  The 
place  was  soon  swarming  with  all  sorts  of  craft, 
some  of  them  from  Jamaica  and  Hispaniola,  and 
they  found  a  large  amount  of  silver  before  they 
stripped  the  wreck  clean. 

The  King  offered  Sir  William  a  place  as  one  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Royal  Navy,  but  he  was  home- 
sick for  New  England  and  desired  to  be  a  person  of 


146         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

consequence  in  his  own  land.  His  friends  obtained 
for  him  a  patent  as  High  Sheriff  of  Massachusetts 
and  he  returned  to  Boston  after  five  years'  absence 
' '  to  entertain  his  Lady  with  some  accomplishment  of 
his  predictions;  and  then  built  himself  a  fair  brick 
house  in  the  very  place  which  was  foretold. ' ' 

The  "fair  brick  house"  was  of  two  stories  with 
a  portico  and  columns.  It  stood  on  the  corner  of 
the  present  Salem  Street  (then  the  Green  Lane) 
and  Charter  Street,  so  named  by  Sir  William  Phips 
in  honor  of  the  new  charter  under  which  he  became 
the  first  provincial  or  royal  governor.  There  was 
a  lawn  and  gardens,  a  watch-house  and  stables,  and 
a  stately  row  of  butternuts.  "North  Boston"  was 
then  the  fashionable  or  "Court  end"  of  the  town. 

The  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  were  seething  with  in- 
dignation against  the  royal  government  overseas. 
The  original  charter  under  which  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  exercised  self-government  had 
been  annulled,  and  Charles  II  was  determined  to 
bring  all  the  New  England  Colonies  under  the  sway 
of  a  royal  governor.  The  question  of  taxation  had 
also  begun  to  simmer  a  full  century  before  the  Eev- 
olution.  Sir  William  Phips  found  his  berth  of  High 
Sheriff  a  difficult  and  turbulent  business,  and  "the 
infamous  Government  then  rampant  there,  found  a 
way  wholly  to  put  by  the  execution  of  his  patent; 
yea,  he  was  like  to  have  had  his  person  assassinated 
in  the  face  of  the  sun,  before  his  own  door. ' ' 

This  rough  ship  carpenter  and  treasure  seeker 
weathered  the  storm  and  rose  so  high  in  the  good 
graces  of  the  throne  that  in  1692  he  carried  to  Massa- 
chusetts the  new  charter  signed  by  William  III  by 
virtue  of  which  he  became  the  first  royal  governor 
of  that  colony,  and  as  an  administrator  he  was  no 


THE  FORTUNE  OP  WILLIAM  PHIPS        147 

less  interesting  than  when  he  was  cruising  off  the 
coast  of  Hispaniola.  The  manners  of  the  quarter- 
deck he  carried  to  the  governor's  office.  His  fists 
were  as  ready  as  his  tongue,  and  his  term  of  two 
years  was  enlivened  by  one  lusty  quarrel  after  an- 
other. In  nowise  ashamed  of  his  humble  begin- 
nings, he  gave  a  dinner  to  his  old  friends  of  the 
Boston  ship-yard  and  told  these  honest  artisans  that 
if  it  were  not  for  his  service  to  the  people,  he  "would 
be  much  easier  in  returning  to  his  broad  axe  again. ' ' 

Hawthorne  has  given  a  picture  of  him  in  the  days 
of  his  greatness,  "a  man  of  strong  and  sturdy 
frame,  whose  face  has  been  roughened  by  northern 
tempests,  and  blackened  by  the  burning  sun  of  the 
West  Indies.  He  wears  an  immense  periwig  flow- 
ing down  over  his  shoulders.  His  coat  has  a  wide 
embroidery  of  golden  foliage,  and  his  waistcoat  like- 
wise is  all  flowered  over  and  bedizened  with  gold. 
His  red,  rough  hands,  which  have  done  many  a 
good  day's  work  with  the  hammer  and  adze,  are 
half  covered  by  the  delicate  lace  ruffles  at  his  wrists. 
On  a  table  lies  his  silver-headed  sword,  and  in  a 
corner  of  the  room  stands  his  gold-headed  cane, 
made  of  a  beautifully  polished  West  India  wood." 

Cotton  Mather  helps  to  complete  the  presentment 
by  relating  that  "he  was  very  tall,  beyond  the  com- 
mon set  of  men,  and  thick  as  well  as  tall,  and  strong 
as  well  as  thick.  He  was  in  all  respects  exceedingly 
robust,  and  able  to  conquer  such  difficulties  of  diet 
and  travel  as  would  have  killed  most  men  alive. 
Nor  did  the  fat  whereinto  he  grew  very  much  in 
his  later  years,  take  away  the  vigor  of  his  motions. ' ' 

As  a  fighting  seaman  and  soldier,  Sir  William 
Phips  saw  hard  service  before  he  was  made  royal 
governor.     In  1690  he  was  in  command  of  an  expedi- 


148         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

tion  which  made  a  successful  raid  on  the  French  in 
Arcadia,  captured  Port  Royal,  and  conquered  the 
province.  Among  the  English  state  papers  in  the 
Public  Record  office  is  his  own  account  of  this  feat 
of  arms  of  his  expedition  against  Quebec.  "In 
March,  1690,"  he  wrote,  "I  sailed  with  seven  ships 
and  seven  hundred  men,  raised  by  the  people  of  New 
England,  reduced  Arcadia  in  three  weeks  and  re- 
turned to  Boston.  It  was  then  thought  well  to  pros- 
ecute a  further  expedition.  2300  men  were  raised, 
with  whom  and  with  about  thirty  ships  I  sailed  from 
New  England  on  the  10th,  August,  1690,  but  by  bad 
weather  and  contrary  winds  did  not  reach  Quebec 
till  October.  The  frost  was  already  so  sharp  that 
it  made  two  inches  of  ice  in  a  night. 

"After  summoning  Count  de  Frontenac  and  re- 
ceiving a  reviling  answer,  I  brought  my  ships  up 
within  musket  shot  of  their  cannon  and  fired  with 
such  success  that  I  dismounted  several  of  their  larg- 
est cannon  and  beat  them  from  their  works  in  less 
than  twenty-four  hours.  At  the  same  time  1400 
men,  who  had  been  landed,  defeated  a  great  part  of 
the  enemy,  and  by  the  account  of  the  prisoners,  the 
city  must  have  been  taken  in  two  or  three  days,  but 
the  small-pox  and  fever  increased  so  fast  as  to  de- 
lay the  pushing  of  the  siege  till  the  weather  became 
too  severe  to  permit  it.  On  my  leaving  Quebec,  I  re- 
ceived several  messages  from  French  merchants  of 
the  best  reputation,  saying  how  uneasy  they  were 
under  French  administration,  and  how  willing  they 
were  to  be  under  their  Majesties.' ' 

In  a  "Narrative  of  the  Expedition  against 
Quebec,' '  written  at  the  time,  is  this  passage: 

"Whilst  these  things  were  doing  on  shore,  Sir 
Wm.  Phips  with  his  men  of  war  came  close  up  to  ye 


1 


i 


"■'F ' 


t 


sfis? 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS         149 

City.  He  did  acquit  himself  with  ye  greatest  brav- 
ery. I  have  diligently  enquired  of  those  that  know 
it  who  affirm  there  was  nothing  wanting  in  his  Part, 
either  as  to  Conduct  or  Courage.  He  ventured 
within  Pistol  shot  of  their  cannon,  and  soon  beat 
them  from  thence,  and  battered  ye  Town  very  much. 
He  was  for  some  Hours  warmly  entertained  with 
their  great  Guns.  The  Vessel  wherein  Sir  William 
commanded  had  200  men.  It  was  shot  through  in  a 
hundred  places  with  shot  of  twenty-four  pound 
weight;  yet  through  ye  wonderful  Providence  of 
God,  but  one  man  was  killed  and  two  mortally 
wounded  in  that  hot  Engagement,  which  continued 
ye  greatest  part  of  ye  night  and  ye  next  day  several 
hours." 

Another  letter  written  by  Sir  William  Phips,  ad- 
dressed from  Boston  to  William  Blathwayt,  soon 
after  he  was  made  Governor,  shows  him  in  a  light 
even  more  engaging.  The  witchcraft  frenzy  was  at 
its  height,  and  only  three  weeks  before  this  date, 
October  12,  1692,  fourteen  men  and  women  had  been 
hanged  in  Salem.  This  letter,  as  copied  from  the 
original  document,  runs  as  follows: 

"On  my  arrival  I  found  this  Province  miserably 
harrassed  by  a  most  horrible  witchcraft  or  posses- 
sion of  devils,  which  had  broken  in  upon  several 
towns.  Some  scores  of  poor  people  were  taken  with 
preternatural  torments;  some  were  scalded  with 
brimstone;  some  had  pins  stuck  into  their  flesh, 
others  were  hurried  into  fire  and  water,  and  some 
were  dragged  out  of  their  houses  and  carried  over 
the  tops  of  trees  and  hills  for  many  miles  together. 

"It  has  been  represented  to  me  as  much  like  that 
of  Sweden  thirty  years  ago,  and  there  were  many 
committed  to  prison  on  suspicion  of  witchcraft  be- 


150         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

fore  my  arrival.  The  loud  cries  and  clamor  of  the 
friends  of  the  afflicted,  together  with  the  advice  of 
the  Deputy  Governor  and  Council,  prevailed  with 
me  to  appoint  a  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  to  dis- 
cover what  witchcraft  might  be  at  the  bottom,  and 
whether  it  were  not  a  possession.  The  chief  judge 
was  the  Deputy  Governor,  and  the  rest  people  of 
the  best  prudence  and  figure  that  could  be  pitched 
upon. 

''At  Salem  in  Essex  County  they  convicted  more 
than  twenty  persons  of  witchcraft,  and  some  of  the 
accused  confessed  their  guilt.  The  Court,  as  I 
understand,  began  their  proceedings  with  the  ac- 
cusations of  the  afflicted  persons,  and  then  went  upon 
other  evidences  to  strengthen  that.  I  was  in  the 
East  of  the  Colony  throughout  almost  the  whole  of 
the  proceedings,  trusting  to  the  Court  as  the  right 
method  of  dealing  with  cases  of  witchcraft.  But 
when  I  returned  I  found  many  persons  in  a  strange 
ferment  of  dissatisfaction  which  was  increased  by 
some  hot  spirits  that  blew  upon  the  flame.  But  on 
enquiry  into  the  matter,  I  found  that  the  Devil  had 
taken  upon  him  the  name  and  shape  of  several  per- 
sons who  were  doubtless  innocent,  for  which  cause 
I  have  now  forbidden  the  committal  of  any  more  ac- 
cused persons. 

"And  them  that  have  been  committed  I  would 
shelter  from  any  proceedings,  wherein  the  innocent 
could  suffer  wrong.  I  would  also  await  the  King's 
orders  in  this  perplexing  affair.  I  have  put  a  stop 
to  the  printing  of  any  discourses  on  either  side  that 
may  increase  useless  disputes,  for  open  contests 
would  mean  an  unextinguishable  flame.  I  have  been 
grieved  to  see  that  some  who  should  have  done  bet- 
ter services  to  their  Majesties  and  this  Province  have 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        151 

so  far  taken  counsel  with  passion  as  to  declare  the 
precipitancy  of  these  matters.  ...  As  soon  as 
I  had  done  fighting  the  King's  enemies,  and  under- 
stood the  danger  of  innocent  people  through  the  ac- 
cusations of  the  afflicted,  I  put  a  stop  to  the  Court 
proceedings  till  the  King's  pleasure  should  be 
known.* ' 

It  was  Governor  Phips  who  suppressed  the  witch- 
craft persecutions  and  the  special  court  that  had 
passed  so  many  wicked  death  sentences  was  shorn 
of  its  powers  by  his  order.  Other  prisoners  were 
later  acquitted,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  released 
from  jail.  No  sooner  was  this  burly  figure  of  a 
man  finished  with  the  witchcraft  business  than  he 
was  leading  a  force  of  Indian  allies  against  the 
French.  "His  birth  and  youth  in  the  East  had  ren- 
dered him  well  known  to  the  Indians  there,"  says 
Cotton  Mather,  "he  had  hunted  and  fished  many  a 
weary  day  in  his  childhood  with  them;  and  when 
these  rude  savages  had  got  the  story  that  he  had 
found  a  ship  full  of  money,  and  was  now  become  all 
one  a  King,  they  were  mightily  astonished  at  it ;  but 
when  they  further  understood  that  he  was  now  be- 
come the  Governor  of  New  England,  it  added  a  fur- 
ther degree  of  consternation  to  their  astonishment. ' ' 

He  was  too  strenuous  a  person,  was  this  astonish- 
ing William  Phips,  to  remain  tamed  and  conserva- 
tive when  there  was  no  strong  work  in  hand.  With 
that  gold-headed  cane  of  his  he  cracked  the  head  of 
the  Captain  of  the  Nonesuch  frigate  of  the  royal 
navy,  and  with  his  hard  fists  he  pounded  the  Col- 
lector of  the  Port  after  swearing  at  him  with  such 
oaths  as  better  befitted  a  buccaneer  than  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  province.  These  quarrels  arose  from  a 
dispute  over  the  authority  of  Sir  William  to  lay 


152         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

down  the  law  as  he  pleased.  By  virtue  of  his  com- 
mission as  Vice  Admiral  of  the  Colony  he  held  that 
he  had  the  right  to  judge  and  condemn  naval  prizes. 
The  Collector  claimed  jurisdiction  and  when  he  re- 
fused to  deliver  a  cargo  of  plunder  brought  in  by 
a  privateer,  the  governor  blacked  his  eyes  for  him. 

As  for  the  naval  skipper,  Captain  Short,  his  ex- 
perience with  the  Phips  temper  was  even  more 
disastrous.  He  refused  to  lend  some  of  his  men  to 
man  a  cruiser  which  the  governor  wished  to  send 
after  coastwise  pirates.  When  next  the  twain  met, 
Captain  Short  was  first  well  threshed,  then  bundled 
off  to  prison,  and  from  there  skipped  home  to  Eng- 
land in  a  merchantman. 

Such  methods  of  administration  had  served  ad- 
mirably well  to  rule  those  mutinous  dogs  of  seamen 
aboard  the  Rose  frigate,  but  they  were  resented  in 
Boston,  and  after  other  altercations,  Governor 
Phips  found  it  necessary  to  go  to  England  to  an- 
swer the  complaints  which  had  been  piling  up  in 
the  offices  of  the  Lords  of  the  Council  of  Trade  and 
Plantations.  He  sailed  in  his  own  yacht,  a  brigan- 
tine  built  in  a  Boston  shipyard,  and  we  may  be  sure 
that  he  was  ready  to  face  his  accusers  with  a  stout 
heart. 

Hutchinson,  in  his  History  of  Massachusetts, 
analyzed  the  trouble  as  follows : 

"Sir  William  Phips'  rule  was  short.  His  con- 
duct when  captain  of  a  ship  of  war  is  represented 
very  much  to  his  advantage ;  but  further  talents  were 
necessary  for  the  good  government  of  a  province. 
He  was  of  a  benevolent,  friendly  disposition ;  at  the 
same  time  quick  and  passionate.     .     .     . 

"A  vessel  arrived  from  the  Bahamas,  with  a  load 
of  fustick,  for  which  no  bond  had  been  given.     Col. 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        153 

Foster,  a  merchant  of  Boston,  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil, and  fast  friend  of  the  Governor,  bought  the 
fustick  at  such  price  that  he  was  loth  to  give  up  the 
bargain.  The  Collector  seized  the  vessel  and  goods ; 
and  upon  Foster's  representation  to  the  Governor, 
he  interposed.  There  was  at  that  time  no  Court  of 
Admiralty.  Sir  "William  took  a  summary  way  of 
deciding  this  case,  and  sent  an  order  to  the  Collector 
to  forbear  meddling  with  the  goods,  and  upon  his  re- 
fusal to  observe  orders,  the  Governor  went  to  the 
wharf,  and  after  warm  words  on  both  sides,  laid 
hands  upon  the  Collector,  but  with  what  degree  of 
violence  was  controverted  by  both.  The  Governor 
prevailed,  and  the  vessel  and  goods  were  taken  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  Collector. 

"There  had  been  a  misunderstanding  also  be- 
tween the  Governor  and  Captain  Short  of  the  None- 
such frigate.  In  their  passage  from  England  a 
prize  was  taken ;  and  Short  complained  that  the  Gov- 
ernor had  deprived  him  of  part  of  his  share  or  legal 
interest  in  her.  Whether  there  were  grounds  for  it 
does  not  appear.  The  captains  of  men  of  war  sta- 
tioned in  the  colonies  were  in  those  days  required  to 
follow  such  instructions  as  the  governors  gave  them 
relative  to  their  cruises  and  the  protection  of  the 
trade  of  the  colonies,  and  the  Governor,  by  his  com- 
mission, had  power  in  case  of  any  great  crime  com- 
mitted by  any  of  the  captains  of  men  of  war,  to  sus- 
pend them,  and  the  next  officer  was  to  succeed. 

"The  Governor  required  Captain  Short  to  order 
part  of  the  men  belonging  to  the  Nonesuch  upon 
some  service,  which  I  do  not  find  mentioned,  prob- 
ably to  some  cruiser,  there  being  many  picaroons 
about  the  eastern  coasts,  but  he  refused  to  do  it. 
This  was  ill  taken  by  the  Governor;  and  meeting 


154         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Captain  Short  in  the  street,  warm  words  passed, 
and  at  length  the  Governor  made  use  of  his  cane  and 
broke  Short's  head.  Not  content  with  this,  he  com- 
mitted him  to  prison.  The  right  of  a  governor  to 
commit  by  his  own  warrant  had  not  then  been 
questioned. 

"From  the  prison  he  removed  him  to  the  castle, 
and  from  those  on  board  a  merchant  bound  to  Lon- 
don, to  be  delivered  to  the  order  of  one  of  their  Maj- 
esties' principal  secretaries  of  state;  giving  the  mas- 
ter a  warrant  or  authority  to  do  so.  The  vessel,  by 
some  accident,  put  into  Portsmouth  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. Sir  William  who  seems  to  have  been  sensible 
of  some  irregularity  in  these  proceedings,  went  to 
Portsmouth,  required  the  master  of  the  merchant- 
man to  return  him  the  warrant,  which  he  tore  to 
pieces,  and  then  ordered  the  cabin  of  the  ship  to  be 
opened,  secured  Short's  chests,  and  examined  the 
contents. 

"Short  was  prevented  going  home  in  this  vessel, 
and  went  to  New  York  to  take  passage  from  thence 
for  England ;  but  Sir  F.  Wheeler  arriving  soon  after 
at  Boston,  went  for  him  and  carried  him  home  with 
him.  The  next  officer  succeeded  in  the  command  of 
the  ship,  until  a  new  captain  arrived  from  England. 
Short  was  restored  to  the  command  of  as  good  a 
ship. ' ' 

King  William  refused  to  depose  the  famous  treas- 
ure finder  without  hearing  what  he  had  to  say  in  his 
defense,  and  Sir  William  stoutly  swore  that  those 
whom  he  had  punished  got  no  more  than  they  de- 
served. A  strong  party  had  been  mustered  against 
him,  however,  and  he  waged  an  uphill  fight  for 
vindication  until  Death,  the  one  foe  for  whom  he 
did  not  think  himself  a  match,  took  him  by  the  heels 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS        155 

and  laid  him  in  a  vault  beneath  the  Church  of  St. 
Mary  Woolnoth,  London.  A  guide-book  of  that  city, 
published  in  1708,  contained  this  description  of  the 
memorial  placed  therein : 

"At  the  east  end  of  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  Wool- 
noth, near  the  northeast  angle,  is  a  pretty  white 
marble  monument,  adorned  with  an  urn  between  two 
Cupids,  the  figure  of  a  ship,  and  also  a  boat  at  sea, 
with  persons  in  the  water ;  these  beheld  by  a  winged 
eye,  all  done  in  basso  relieve ;  also  the  seven  medals, 
as  that  of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary;  some 
with  Spanish  impressions,  as  the  castle,  cross-por- 
tent, etc.  and  likewise  the  figures  of  a  sea  quadrant ; 
cross-staff,  and  this  inscription: 

"  'Near  this  place  is  interred  the  Body  of  Sir 
William  Phips,  knight ;  who  in  the  year  1687,  by  his 
great  industry,  discovered  among  the  rocks  near  the 
Banks  of  Bahama  on  the  north  side  of  Hispaniola 
a  Spanish  plate-ship  which  had  been  under  water 
44  years,  out  of  which  he  took  in  gold  and  silver 
to  the  value  of  £300,000  sterling :  and  with  a  fidelity 
equal  to  his  conduct,  brought  it  all  to  London,  where 
it  was  divided  between  himself  and  the  rest  of  the 
adventurers.  For  which  great  service  he  was 
knighted  by  his  then  Majesty,  King  James  the  2nd, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of 
New  England,  he  accepted  of  the  Government  of 
the  Massachusetts,  in  which  he  continued  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death;  and  discharged  his  trust  with 
that  zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  country,  and  with 
so  little  regard  to  his  own  private  advantage,  that 
he  justly  gained  the  good  esteem  and  affection  of 
the  greatest  and  best  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
Colony. 

"  'He  died  the  18th  of  February,  1694,  and  his 


156         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

lady,  to  perpetuate  his  memory,  hath  caused  this 
monument  to  be  erected.'  " 

It  is  far  better  to  know  the  man  as  he  was,  rough- 
hewn,  hasty,  unlettered,  but  simple  and  honest  as 
daylight,  than  to  accept  the  false  and  silly  epitaph 
of  Cotton  Mather,  that  "he  was  a  person  of  so  sweet 
a  temper  that  they  who  were  most  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  him  would  commonly  pronounce  him 
the  Best  Conditioned  Gentleman  in  the  World." 
After  he  had  wrested  his  fortune  from  the  bottom 
of  the  sea  in  circumstances  splendidly  romantic,  he 
used  the  power  which  his  wealth  gained  for  him 
wholly  in  the  service  of  the  people  of  his  own 
country. 

During  his  last  visit  to  London,  when  he  had  grown 
tired  of  being  a  royal  governor,  he  harked  back  to 
his  old  love,  and  was  planning  another  treasure  voy- 
age. "The  Spanish  wreck  was  not  the  only  nor  the 
richest  wreck  which  he  knew  to  be  lying  under  the 
water.  He  knew  particularly  that  when  the  ship 
which  had  Governor  Bobadilla  aboard  was  cast 
away,  there  was,  as  Peter  Martyr  says,  an  entire 
table  of  Gold  of  Three  Thousand  Three  Hundred 
and  Ten  Pounds  Weight.  And  supposing  himself 
to  have  gained  sufficient  information  of  the  right 
way  to  such  a  wreck,  it  was  his  purpose  upon  his  dis- 
mission from  his  Government,  once  more  to  have 
gone  upon  his  old  Fishing-Trade,  upon  a  mighty 
shelf  of  rocks  and  bank  of  sands  that  lie  where  he 
had  informed  himself." 

Never  was  there  so  haunting  a  reference  to  lost 
treasure  as  this  mention  of  that  gold  table  that  went 
down  with  Governor  Bobadilla.  The  words  ring 
like  a  peal  of  magic  bells.  Alas,  the  pity  of  it,  that 
Sir  William  Phips  did  not  live  to  fit  out  a  brave  ship 


be 

c 

'I 

o 


^"  in 

«**  a! 

O  « 

v  •" 

•-  O 


.C 


o   o 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  WILLIAM  PHIPS         157 

and  go  in  quest  of  this  wondrous  treasure,  for  of 
all  men,  then  or  since,  he  was  the  man  to  find  it. 

Bobadilla  was  that  governor  of  Hispaniola  who 
was  sent  from  Spain  in  1500  by  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  colony  as  ad- 
ministered by  Christopher  Columbus.  He  put  Co- 
lumbus in  chains  and  shipped  him  home,  but  the 
great  discoverer  found  a  friendly  welcome  there,  and 
was  sent  back  for  his  fourth  voyage.  He  reached 
Hispaniola  on  the  day  that  Bobadilla  was  sailing  for 
Spain,  in  his  turn  to  give  place  to  a  new  Governor, 
Ovando  by  name.  Bobadilla  embarked  at  San  Do- 
mingo in  the  largest  ship  of  the  fleet  on  board  of 
which  was  put  an  immense  amount  of  gold,  the  rev- 
enue collected  for  the  Crown  during  his  government, 
which  he  hoped  might  ease  the  disgrace  of  his  recall. 

The  Spanish  historian,  Las  Casas,  besides  other 
old  chroniclers,  mention  this  solid  mass  of  virgin 
gold  which  Peter  Martyr  affirmed  had  been  fashioned 
into  a  table.  This  enormous  nugget  had  been  found 
by  an  Indian  woman  in  a  brook  on  the  estate  of  Fran- 
cisco de  Garay  and  Miguel  Diaz  and  had  been  taken 
by  Bobadilla  to  send  to  the  king.  According  to  Las 
Casas,  it  weighed  three  thousand,  six  hundred  cas- 
tellanos. 

When  Bobadilla 's  fleet  weighed  anchor,  Columbus 
sent  a  messenger  urging  the  ships  to  remain  in  port 
because  a  storm  was  imminent.  The  pilots  and  sea- 
men scoffed  at  the  warning,  and  the  galleons  stood 
out  from  San  Domingo  only  to  meet  a  tropical  hur- 
ricane of  terrific  violence.  Off  the  most  easterly 
point  of  Hispaniola,  Bobadilla 's  ship  went  down  with 
all  on  board.  If  this  galleon  carrying  the  gold  table, 
besides  much  other  treasure,  had  foundered  in  deep 
water,  it  is  unlikely  that  Sir  William  Phips  would 


158         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

have  planned  to  go  in  search  of  her.  If,  however,  the 
ship  had  been  smashed  on  a  reef,  he  may  have 
"fished  up"  information  from  some  other  ancient 
Spaniard  as  to  her  exact  location. 

The  secret  was  buried  in  his  grave  and  he  left  no 
chart  to  show  where  he  hoped  to  find  that  marvelous 
treasure,  and  nobody  knows  the  bearings  of  that 
"mighty  shelf  of  rock  and  bank  of  sands  that  lie 
where  he  had  informed  himself. ' ' 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    BOLD    SEA   KOGUE,    JOHN    QUELCH 

The  Isles  of  Shoals,  lying  within  sight  of  Ports- 
mouth Harbor  on  the  New  Hampshire  coast,  are  rich 
in  buried  treasure  legends  and  rocky  Appledore  is 
distinguished  by  the  ghost  of  a  pirate,  "a  pale  and 
very  dreadful  specter,"  whose  neck  bears  the  livid 
mark  of  the  hangman's  noose.  This  is  a  ghost  in 
whose  case  familiarity  has  bred  contempt  among  the 
matter-of-fact  islanders,  for  they  call  him  "Old 
Bab"  and  employ  him  to  frighten  naughty  children. 
Drake's  "Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England 
Coast"  narrates  in  the  proper  melodramatic  manner 
the  best  of  these  traditions. 

"Among  others  to  whom  it  is  said  these  islands 
were  known  was  the  celebrated  Captain  Teach,  or 
Blackbeard,  as  he  was  often  called.  He  is  supposed 
to  have  buried  immense  treasure  here,  some  of  which 
has  been  dug  up  and  appropriated  by  the  islanders. 
On  one  of  his  cruises,  while  lying  off  the  Scottish 
coast  waiting  for  a  rich  trader,  he  was  boarded  by 
a  stranger  who  came  off  in  a  small  boat  from  the 
shore.  The  visitor  demanded  to  be  led  before  the 
pirate  chief  in  whose  cabin  he  remained  closeted  for 
some  time.  At  length  Blackbeard  appeared  on  deck 
with  the  stranger  whom  he  introduced  as  a  comrade. 
The  vessel  they  were  expecting  soon  came  in  sight, 
and,  after  a  bloody  conflict,  became  the  prize  of 
Blackbeard,     The  newcomer  had  shown  such  brav- 

159 


160         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ery  that  he  was  given  command  of  the  captured  mer- 
chantman. 

''The  stranger  soon  proved  himself  a  pirate  leader 
of  great  skill  and  bravery  and  went  cruising  off  to 
the  southward  and  the  coasts  of  the  Spanish  Main. 
At  last  after  his  appetite  for  wealth  had  been  sati- 
ated he  sailed  back  to  his  native  land  of  Scotland, 
made  a  landing,  and  returned  on  board  with  the  in- 
sensible body  of  a  beautiful  young  woman  in  his 
arms. 

"The  pirate  ship  then  made  sail,  crossed  the  At- 
lantic, and  anchored  in  the  roadstead  of  the  Isles  of 
Shoals.  Here  the  crew  passed  the  time  in  secreting 
their  riches  and  in  carousing.  The  commander's 
portion  was  buried  on  an  island  apart  from  the  rest. 
He  roamed  over  the  isles  with  his  beautiful  compan- 
ion, forgetful,  it  would  seem,  of  his  fearful  trade, 
until  one  day  a  sail  was  seen  standing  in  for  the 
islands.  All  was  now  activity  on  board  the  pirate ; 
but  before  getting  under  way  the  outlaw  carried  the 
maiden  to  the  island  where  he  had  buried  his  treas- 
ure, and  made  her  take  a  fearful  oath  to  guard  the 
spot  from  mortals  until  his  return,  were  it  not  'til 
doomsday. 

"The  strange  sail  proved  to  be  a  warlike  vessel 
in  search  of  the  freebooter.  A  long  and  desperate 
battle  ensued,  in  which  the  cruiser  at  last  silenced 
her  adversary's  guns.  The  vessels  were  grappled 
for  a  last  struggle  when  a  terrible  explosion  strewed 
the  sea  with  the  fragments  of  both.  Stung  to  mad- 
ness by  defeat,  knowing  that  if  taken  alive  a  gibbet 
awaited  him,  the  rover  had  fired  the  magazine,  in- 
volving friend  and  foe  in  a  common  fate. 

"A  few  mangled  wretches  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  islands,  only  to  perish  miserably  one  by  one, 


JOHN  QUELCH  161 

from  hunger  and  cold.  The  pirate's  mistress  re- 
mained true  to  her  oath  to  the  last,  or  until  she  had 
succumbed  to  want  and  exposure.  By  report,  she 
has  been  seen  more  than  once  on  White  Island — a 
tall  shapely  figure,  wrapped  in  a  long  sea  cloak,  her 
head  and  neck  uncovered,  except  by  a  profusion  of 
golden  hair.  Her  face  is  described  as  exquisitely 
rounded,  but  pale  and  still  as  marble.  She  takes  her 
stand  on  the  verge  of  a  low,  projecting  point,  gazing 
fixedly  out  upon  the  ocean  in  an  attitude  of  intense 
expectation.  A  former  race  of  fishermen  avouched 
that  her  ghost  was  doomed  to  haunt  those  rocks  until 
the  last  trump  shall  sound,  and  that  the  ancient 
graves  to  be  found  on  the  islands  were  tenanted  by 
Blackbeard's  men." 

It  is  more  probable  that  whatever  treasure  may 
be  hidden  among  the  Isles  of  Shoals  was  hidden 
there  by  the  shipmates  of  a  great  scamp  of  a  pirate 
named  John  Quelch  who  fills  an  interesting  page  in 
the  early  history  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  In 
proof  of  this  assertion  is  the  entry  in  one  of  the  old 
records  of  Salem,  written  in  the  year  1704: 

''Major  Stephen  Sewall,  Captain  John  Turner, 
and  40  volunteers  embark  in  a  shallop  and  Fort 
Pinnace  after  Sunset  to  go  in  search  of  some  Pirates 
who  sailed  from  Gloucester  in  the  morning.  Major 
Sewall  brought  into  Salem  a  Galley,  Captain  Thomas 
Lowrimore,  on  board  of  which  he  had  captured  some 
Pirates,  and  some  of  their  Gold  at  the  Isle  of  Shoals. 
Major  Sewall  carries  the  Pirates  to  Boston  under 
a  strong  guard.  Captain  Quelch  and  five  of  his 
crew  are  hung.  About  13  of  the  ship 's  Company  re- 
main under  sentence  of  death  and  several  more  are 
cleared. ' ' 

By  no   means   all   of  the  bloodstained   gold   of 


162         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Quelch  was  recovered  by  this  expedition  which  went 
to  the  Isles  of  Shoals  and  it  is  more  likely  to  be  hid- 
den there  to  this  day  than  anywhere  else.  Quelch 
was  a  bold  figure  of  a  pirate  worthy  to  be  named  in 
the  company  of  the  most  dashing  of  his  profession 
in  the  era  of  Kidd,  Bradish,  Bellamy,  and  Low.  His 
story  is  worth  the  telling  because  it  is,  in  a  way,  a 
sequel  of  the  tragedy  of  Captain  Kidd. 

In  1703,  the  brigantine  Charles,  of  about  eighty 
tons,  owned  by  leading  citizens  and  merchants  of 
Boston,  was  fitted  out  as  a  privateer  to  go  cruising 
against  the  French  off  the  coasts  of  Arcadia  and  New- 
foundland. On  July  13th  of  that  year,  her  com- 
mander, Captain  David  Plowman,  received  his  com- 
mission from  Governor  Dudley  of  the  province  to 
sail  in  pursuit  of  the  Queen's  enemies  and  pirates, 
with  other  customary  instructions.  There  was  some 
delay  in  shipping  a  crew,  and  on  the  first  of  August 
the  Charles  was  riding  off  Marblehead  when  Cap- 
tain Plowman  was  taken  ill.  He  sent  a  letter  to  his 
owners,  stating  that  he  was  unable  to  take  the  vessel 
to  sea,  and  suggesting  that  they  come  on  board  next 
day  and  ' '  take  some  speedy  care  in  saving  what  we 
can. ' ' 

The  owners  went  to  Marblehead,  but  the  captain 
was  too  ill  to  confer  with  them.  He  was  able,  how- 
ever, to  write  again,  this  time  urging  them  to  have 
the  vessel  carried  to  Boston,  and  the  arms  and 
stores  landed  in  order  to  " prevent  embezzlement," 
and  advising  against  sending  the  Charles  on  her 
cruise  under  a  new  commander,  adding  the  warning 
that  "it  will  not  do  with  these  people,"  meaning  the 
crew  then  on  board. 

Before  the  owners  could  take  any  measures  to 
safeguard  their  property,  the  brigantine  had  made 


JOHN  QUELCH  163 

sail  and  was  standing  out  to  sea,  stolen  by  her  crew. 
The  helpless  captain  was  locked  in  his  cabin,  and  the 
new  commander  on  the  quarter-deck  was  John 
Quelch  who  had  planned  and  led  the  mutiny.  In- 
stead of  turning  to  the  northward,  the  bow  of  the 
Charles  was  pointed  for  the  South  Atlantic  and  the 
track  of  the  Spanish  trade  where  there  was  rich 
pirating.  Somewhere  in  the  Gulf  Stream,  poor  Cap- 
tain Plowman  was  dragged  on  deck  and  tossed  over- 
board by  order  of  Quelch. 

A  flag  was  then  hoisted,  called  "Old  Koger,"  de- 
scribed as  having  "in  the  middle  of  it  an  Anatomy 
(skeleton)  with  an  Hourglass  in  one  hand,  and  a 
dart  in  the  Heart  with  3  drops  of  Blood  proceeding 
from  it  in  the  other."  When  the  coast  of  Brazil 
was  reached,  Quelch  and  his  men  drove  a  thriving 
trade.  Between  November  15,  1703,  and  February 
17, 1704,  they  boarded  and  took  nine  vessels,  of  which 
five  were  brigantines,  and  one  a  large  ship  carrying 
twelve  guns.  All  these  craft  flew  the  Portugese 
flag,  and  Portugal  was  an  ally  of  England  by  virtue 
of  a  treaty  which  had  been  signed  at  Lisbon  on  May 
16,  1703.  What  became  of  the  crews  of  these  hap- 
less vessels  was  not  revealed,  but  the  plunder  in- 
cluded salt,  sugar,  rum,  beer,  rice,  flour,  cloth,  silk, 
one  hundred  weight  of  gold  dust,  gold  and  silver  coin 
to  the  value  of  a  thousand  pounds,  two  negro  boys, 
great  guns,  small  arms,  ammunition,  sails,  and 
cordage.  One  of  the  largest  of  the  brigantines  was 
kept  to  serve  as  a  tender. 

Two  weeks  after  the  Charles  had  taken  French 
leave  from  Marblehead,  her  owners,  surmising  that 
she  had  been  headed  toward  the  West  Indies,  per- 
suaded Governor  Dudley  to  take  action,  and  letters 
were  sent  to  officials  in  various  islands  instructing 


164         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

them  to  be  on  the  look-out  for  the  runaway  privateer 
and  to  seize  her  crew  as  pirates.  Quelch  was  a  wily 
rogue,  however,  and  kept  clear  of  all  pursuit,  nor 
was  anything  more  heard  of  the  Charles  until  with 
extraordinary  audacity  he  came  sailing  back  to  New 
England  in  the  following  May  and  dropped  anchor 
off  Marblehead.  His  men  quickly  scattered  along- 
shore, and  gave  out  the  story  which  he  had  cooked 
up  for  them,  that  Captain  Plowman  had  died  of  his 
illness  while  at  sea,  that  Quelch  had  been  obliged  to 
take  command,  and  that  they  had  recovered  a  great 
deal  of  treasure  from  the  wreck  of  a  Spanish  galleon. 

The  yarn  was  fishy,  the  men  talked  too  much  in 
their  cups,  and  the  owners  of  the  Charles  were  not 
satisfied  with  Quelch 's  glib  explanation.  They  laid 
information  against  him  in  writing,  and  the  vessel 
was  searched,  the  plunder  indicating  that  the  lawless 
crew  had  been  lifting  the  goods  of  subjects  of  the 
King  of  Portugal.  The  first  mention  of  the  affair  in 
the  Boston  News-Letter  was  in  the  issue  for  the 
week  of  May  15,  1704: 

"  Arrived  at  Marblehead,  Captain  Quelch  in  the 
Brigantine  that  Captain  Plowman  went  out  in.  Is 
said  to  come  from  New  Spain  and  have  made  a  good 
Voyage." 

Quelch  was  a  good  deal  more  of  a  man  than  Cap- 
tain Kidd  who  skulked  homeward,  hiding  his  treas- 
ure, parleying  with  Governor  Bellomont  at  long 
range,  afraid  to  come  to  close  quarters.  A  strutting, 
swaggering,  villain  was  John  Quelch,  daring  to  beard 
the  lion  in  his  den,  trusting  to  his  ability  to  deceive 
with  the  authorities.  To  have  run  away  with  a 
privateer,  thrown  the  captain  overboard,  filled  the 
hold  with  loot,  and  then  sailed  back  to  Marblehead 
was  no  ordinary  achievement.    However,  this  truly 


JOHN  QUELCH  165 

artistic  piracy  was  so  coldly  welcomed  that  a  week 
after  his  arrival  had  been  chronicled,  he  was  in  jail 
and  the  following  proclamation  issued : 

"By  the  Honourable  THOMAS  POVEY,  Esq., 
Lieut.  Governour  and  Commander  in  Chief,  for  the 
time  being,  of  Her  Majesties  Province  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  New  England. 

A  PROCLAMATION 

Whereas,  John  Quelch,  late  Commander  of  the  Brigantine 
Charles  and  Company  to  her  belonging,  Viz,  John  Lambert, 
John  Miller,  John  Clifford,  John  Dorothy,  James  Parrot, 
Charles  James,  William  Whiting,  John  Pitman,  John  Tem- 
pleton,  Benjamin  Perkins,  William  Wiles,  Richard  Law- 
rance,  Erasmus  Peterson,  John  King,  Charles  King,  Isaac 
Johnson,  Nicholas  Lawson,  Daniel  Chevalle,  John  Way, 
Thomas  Farrington,  Matthew  Primer,  Anthony  Holding, 
William  Raynor,  John  Quittance,  John  Harwood,  William 
Jones,  Denis  Carter,  Nicholas  Richardson,  James  Austin, 
James  Pattison,  Joseph  Hutnot,  George  Pierse,  George 
Norton,  Gabriel  Davis,  John  Breck,  John  Carter,  Paul  Gid- 
dens,  Nicholas  Dunbar,  Richard  Thurbar,  Daniel  Chuly, 
and  others ;  Have  lately  imported  a  considerable  quantity  of 
Gold  dust,  and  some  Bar  and  Coin'd  Gold,  which  they  are 
Violently  suspected  to  have  gotten  and  obtained  by  Felony 
and  Piracy  from  some  of  Her  Majesties  Friends  and  Allies, 
and  have  Imported  and  Shared  the  same  among  them- 
selves without  any  Adjudication  or  Condemnation  thereof 
to  be  lawful  Prizes ;  The  said  Commander  and  some  others 
being  apprehended  and  in  Custody,  the  rest  are  absconded 
and  fled  from  Justice. 

"I  have  therefore  thought  fit,  by  and  with  the  advice 
of  Her  Majesties  Council,  strictly  to  Command  and  Re- 
quire all  Officers  Civil  and  Military,  and  others  Her  Maj- 
esties loving  Subjects  to  Apprehend  and  Seize  the  said 
Persons,  or  any  of  them,  whom  they  may  know  or  find, 
and  them  secure  and  their  Treasure,  and  bring  them  be- 


166         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

fore  one  of  the  Council,  or  next  Justice  of  the  Peace,  in 
order  to  their  being  safely  conveyed  to  Boston,  to  be  Ex- 
amined and  brought  to  Answer  what  shall  be  Objected 
against  them,  on  Her  Majesties  behalf. 

"And  all  Her  Majesties  Subjects,  and  others,  are  hereby 
strictly  forbidden  to  entertain,  harbour,  or  conceal  any  of 
the  said  Persons,  or  their  Treasure,  or  to  convey  away,  or 
in  any  manner  further  the  Escape  of  any  of  them,  on  pain 
of  being  proceeded  against  with  utmost  Severity  of  Law, 
as  accessories  and  partakers  with  them  in  their  Crime. 

Given  at  the  Council  Chamber  in  Boston  the  24th  Day 
of  May  in  the  Third  Year  of  the  Reign  of  our  Sovereign 
Lady  ANNE,  by  the  Grace  of  GOD  of  England,  Scotland, 
France,  and  Ireland,  QUEEN,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  etc. 
Annoque  Domi.     1704. 

T.  Povey. 
By  Order  of  the  Lieut. 
Governor  and  Council, 

Isaac  Addington,  Seer. 

GOD  Save  The  QUEEN." 

The  editor  of  The  Boston  News-Letter ,  comment- 
ing on  the  foregoing  fulmination,  saw  fit  to  qualify 
his  previous  mention  of  Quelch's  voyage,  and  an- 
nounced under  date  of  May  27 : 

"Our  last  gave  an  Account  of  Captain  Quelch's 
being  said  to  Arrive  from  N.  Spain,  having  made  a 
good  Voyage,  but  by  the  foregoing  Proclamation  'tis 
uncertain  whence  they  came,  and  too  palpably  evi- 
dent they  have  committed  Piracies,  either  upon  her 
Majesties  Subjects  or  Allies.  .  .  .  "William 
Whiting  lyes  sick,  like  to  dye,  not  yet  examined. 
There  are  two  more  of  them  sick  at  Marble  head, 
and  another  in  Salem  Gaol,  and  James  Austin  im- 
prisoned at  Piscataqua. ' ' 

As  soon  as  Governor  Dudley  returned  to  Boston, 
a  few  days  later,  he  issued  a  proclamation  to  rein- 


o 

r/1 

O 

p 

rt 

r. 

M 

<u 

Id 

£ 

9 

en 

M 

X 

— 

i-i 

P     B 


JOHN  QUELCH  167 

force  that  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  one  para- 
graph indicated  that  the  case  of  John  Quelch  was 
moving  swiftly  toward  the  gallows. 

"And  it  being  now  made  Evident  by  the  Con- 
fession of  some  of  the  said  Persons  apprehended 
and  Examined,  that  the  Gold  and  Treasure  by  them 
Imported  was  robb'd  and  taken  from  the  Subject 
of  the  Crown  of  Portugal,  on  which  they  have  also 
acted  divers  Villainous  Murders,  I  have  thought 
fit,"  etc. 

It  was  believed  that  several  of  the  crew  had 
scampered  off  with  a  large  amount  of  the  treasure, 
for  Governor  Dudley  laid  great  stress  on  overhaul- 
ing sundry  of  them,  mentioned  by  name,  "with  their 
Treasure  concealed."  In  his  speech  at  the  opening 
of  the  General  Court  on  June  1,  he  stated : 

"The *last  week  has  discovered  a  very  notorious 
piracy,  committed  upon  her  Majesties  Allies,  the 
Portugal,  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  by  Quelch  and 
company,  in  the  Charles  Galley;  for  the  discovery 
of  which  all  possible  methods  have  been  used,  and 
the  severest  process  against  those  vile  men  shall  be 
speedily  taken,  that  the  Province  be  not  thereby  dis- 
paraged, as  they  have  been  heretofore;  and  I  hope 
every  good  man  will  do  his  duty  according  to  the 
several  Proclamations  to  discover  the  pirates  and 
their  treasure,  agreable  to  the  Acts  of  Parliament 
in  that  case  made  and  provided." 

Dudley  was  as  energetic  in  pursuit  of  the  runaway 
pirates  as  Bellomont  had  been,  and  the  News-Letter 
recorded  his  activities  in  this  wise: 

"Warrants  are  issued  forth  to  seize  and  appre- 
hend Captain  Larimore  in  the  Larimore  Galley,  who 
is  said  to  have  Sailed  from  Cape  Anne  with  9  or  11 
Pirates  of  Captain  Quelch 's  Company." 


168         THE  BOOK  OF  BUEIED  TREASURE 

''There  is  two  more  of  the  Pirates  seized  this  week 
and  in  Custody  viz.  Benjamin  Perkins,  and  John 
Templeton. ' ' 

"Khode  Island,  June  9.  The  Honorable  Samuel 
Cranston,  Esq.,  Governour  of  Her  Majesties  Colony 
of  Ehode  Island,  etc.,  Having  received  a  Proclama- 
tion Emitted  by  His  Excellency  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq. 
General  and  Gov.  in  Chief  in  and  over  Her  Majesties 
Province  of  the  Mass.  Bay,  etc.,  for  Seizing  and  Ap- 
prehending the  late  Company  of  Pirates  belonging  to 
the  Briganteen  Charles,  of  whom  John  Quelch  was 
Commander,  By  and  with  the  advice  of  the  Deputy 
Governour  and  Council  Present,  issued  forth  his  fur- 
ther Proclamation  to  Seize  and  Apprehend  said 
Pirates,  or  any  of  their  Treasure,  and  to  bring  them 
before  one  of  the  Council,  or  next  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  in  order  to  be  conveyed  to  the  town  of  New- 
port, to  be  examined  and  proceeded  with  according 
to  Law.  Commanding  the  Sheriff  to  Publish  this 
and  His  Excellencies  Proclamation  in  the  Town  of 
New-port,  and  in  other  Towns  of  the  Colony. 
Strictly  forbidding  all  Her  Majesties  Subjects  and 
others  to  conceal  any  of  them  or  their  treasure,  or 
convey  and  further  their  escape,  on  pain  of  being 
proceeded  against  with  utmost  severity  of  law." 

1 '  Marblehead,  June  9.  The  Honorable  Samuel 
Sewall,  Nathanael  Byfield,  and  Paul  Dudley,  Esqrs. 
came  to  this  place  yesterday,  in  obedience  to  His 
Excellency  the  Governour,  his  Order  for  the  more 
effectual  discovering  and  Seizing  the  Pirates  lately 
belonging  to  the  Briganteen  Charles,  John  Quelch 
Commander,  with  their  Treasure.  They  made 
Salem  in  their  way,  where  Samuel  Wakefield  the 
Water  Baily  informed  them  of  a  rumour  that  two 
of  Quelch 's  Company  were  lurking  at  Cape  Anne, 


JOHN  QUELCH  169 

waiting  for  a  Passage  off  the  Coast.  The  Commis- 
sioners made  out  a  Warrant  to  Wakefield  to  Search 
for  them,  and  dispatched  him  away  on  Wednesday 
night.  And  having  gain'd  intelligence  this  Morn- 
ing that  a  certain  number  of  them  well  Armed,  were 
at  Cape  Anne,  designing  to  go  off  in  the  Larimore 
Galley,  then  at  Anchor  in  the  Harbour,  they  immedi- 
ately sent  Men  from  the  several  adjacent  Towns 
by  Land  and  Water  to  prevent  their  escape,  and 
went  thither  themselves,  to  give  necessary  orders 
upon  the  place." 

"Gloucester,  upon  Cape  Anne,  June  9.  The  Com- 
missioners for  Seizing  the  Pirates  and  their  Treas- 
ure arrived  here  this  day,  were  advised  that  the 
Larimore  Galley  Sail'd  in  the  Morning  Eastward, 
and  that  a  Boat  was  seen  to  go  off  from  the  head  of 
the  Cape,  near  Snake  Island,  full  of  men,  supposed 
to  be  the  Pirates.  The  Commissioners,  seeing  the 
Government  mock'd  by  Captain  Larimore  and  his 
officers,  resolved  to  send  after  them.  Major  Stephen 
Sewall  who  attended  with  a  Fishing  Shallop,  and 
the  Fort  Pinnace,  offered  to  go  in  pursuit  of  them, 
and  Captain  John  Turner,  Mr.  Eobert  Brisco,  Capt. 
Knight,  and  several  other  good  men  voluntarily  ac- 
companied him,  to  the  Number  of  42  men  who  rowed 
out  of  the  Harbour  after  Sun-sett,  being  little  Wind." 

"Salem,  June  11.  This  afternoon  Major  Sewall 
brought  into  this  Port  the  Larimore  Galley  and 
Seven  Pirates,  viz.,  Erasmus  Peterson,  Charles 
James,  John  Carter,  John  Pitman,  Francis  King, 
Charles  King,  John  King,  whom  he  with  his  Com- 
pany Surprized  and  Seized  at  the  Isles  of  Sholes 
the  10th.  Instant  viz.  four  of  them  on  Board  the 
Larimore  Galley,  and  three  on  shoar  on  Starr 
Island,  being  assisted  by  John  Hinckes  and  Thomas 


170         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Phipps,  Esqrs.,  two  of  her  Majesties  Justices  of 
New  Hampshire,  who  were  happily  there,  together 
with  the  Justices  and  the  Captain  of  the  Place.  He 
also  seized  45  Ounces  and  Seven  Penny  weight  of 
Gold  of  the  said  Pirates.  Captain  Thomas  Lari- 
more,  Joseph  Wells,  Lieutenant,  and  Daniel  Wor- 
mall,  Master,  and  the  said  Pirates  are  Secured  in  our 
Gaol." 

"Gloucester,  June  12.  Yesterday  Major  Sewall 
passed  by  this  place  with  the  Larimore  Galley  and 
Shallop  Trial  standing  for  Salem,  and  having  little 
wind,  set  our  men  ashore  on  the  Eastern  Point,  giv- 
ing of  them  notice  that  William  Jones  and  Peter 
Koach,  two  of  the  Pirates  had  mistook  their  way,  and 
were  still  left  at  the  Cape,  with  strict  charge  to 
search  for  them,  which  our  Towns  People  performed 
very  industriously.  Being  strangers  and  destitute 
of  all  Succours,  they  surrendered  themselves  this 
Afternoon,  and  were  sent  to  Salem  Prison." 

"Boston,  June  17.  On  the  13th.  Instant,  Major 
Sewall  attended  with  a  strong  guard  brought  to 
Town  the  above  mentioned  Pirates  and  Gold  he  had 
seized  and  gave  His  Excellency  a  full  Account  of 
his  Procedure  in  Seizing  them.  The  Prisoners  were 
committed  to  Gaol  in  order  to  a  Tryal,  and  the  Gold 
delivered  to  the  Treasurer  and  Committee  appointed 
to  receive  the  same.  The  service  of  Major  Sewall 
and  Company  was  very  well  Accepted  and  Rewarded 
by  the  Governour. 

"His  Excellency  was  pleased  on  the  13  Currant  to 
open  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty  for  trying  Capt. 
John  Quelch,  late  Commander  of  the  Briganteen 
Charles,  and  Company  for  Piracy,  who  were  brought 
to  the  Barr,  and  the  Articles  exhibited  against  them 
read.     They  all  pleaded  Not  Guilty,  excepting  three, 


JOHN  QUELCH  171 

viz.  Matthew  Primer,  John  Clifford,  and  James  Par- 
rot, who  were  reserved  for  Evidences  and  are  in 
her  Majesties  Mercy.  The  Prisoners  moved  for 
Council,  and  His  Excellency  assigned  them  Mr. 
James  Meinzes.  The  Court  was  adjourned  to  the 
16th.  When  met  again  Capt.  Quelch  preferr'd  a  Pe- 
tition to  His  Excellency  and  Honorable  Court,  crav- 
ing longer  time  which  was  granted  till  Monday  Morn- 
ing at  Nine  of  the  Clock,  when  said  Court  is  to  sit 
again  in  order  to  their  Tryal. ' ' 

Newspaper  reporting  was  primitive  in  the  Year  of 
Our  Lord,  1704,  and  we  are  denied  further  informa- 
tion of  the  merry  chase  after  the  fleeing  pirates  and 
their  treasure.  One  would  like  to  know  more  of  that 
adventure  at  the  Isles  of  Shoals  and  what  the  fugi- 
tives were  doing  "on  shoar"  at  Starr  Island.  The 
trial  of  Quelch  and  his  companions  was  recorded 
with  much  more  detail  because  it  had  certain  impor- 
tant and  memorable  aspects.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
Kidd  and  his  men  were  sent  to  England  for  trial  by 
Bellomont  for  the  reason  that  the  colonial  laws  made 
no  provision  for  executing  the  death  sentence  in  the 
case  of  a  convicted  pirate.  The  difficulties  and  de- 
lays and  the  large  expense  incident  to  the  Kidd 
proceedings  were  among  the  considerations  which 
moved  Parliament,  by  an  act  passed  in  the  reign  of 
William  III,  to  confer  upon  the  Crown  authority  to 
issue  commissions  for  the  trial  of  pirates  by  Courts 
of  Admiralty  out  of  the  realm.  Such  a  commission 
was  finally  sent  to  Lord  Bellomont  for  the  trial  of 
pirates  in  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and 
Ehode  Island.  Another  document  of  the  same  kind, 
granting  him  this  power  for  New  York,  arrived  there 
after  his  death. 

These  rights  were  confirmed  by  Queen  Anne,  and 


172         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

in  her  instructions  to  Governor  Dudley  she  ex- 
pressed "her  will  and  pleasure  that  in  all  matters 
relating  to  the  prosecution  of  pirates,  he  govern  him- 
self according  to  the  act  and  commission  aforesaid. ' ' 
The  trial  of  Quelch  was  the  first  to  be  held  by  virtue 
of  these  authorizations,  and  therefore  the  first  cap- 
ital proceedings  against  pirates  in  the  New  England 
Colonies.  A  special  court  was  convened,  and  an  im- 
posing tribunal  it  was,  comprising  the  Governors 
and  Lieutenant  Governors  of  the  Provinces  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  New  Hampshire,  the  Judge 
of  Vice  Admiralty  in  each,  the  Chief  Justices  of  the 
Superior  Court  of  Judicature,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Province,  Members  of  the  Council  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  and  the  Collector  of  Customs  for  New  England. 

The  sessions  were  held  in  the  Star  Tavern,  on  the 
present  Hanover  Street  of  Boston,  and  Quelch  was 
tried  first,  "being  charged  with  nine  several  articles 
of  piracy  and  murder. ' '  He  was  very  expeditiously 
found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  death,  after  which 
nineteen  of  his  company,  in  two  batches,  were  dealt 
the  same  verdict.  From  this  wholesale  punishment 
only  two  were  excepted,  William  Wh^ing,  ' '  the  wit- 
nesses proving  no  matter  of  fact  upon  him,  said 
Whiting  being  sick  all  the  voyage  and  not  active," 
and  John  Templeton,  "a  servant  about  fourteen 
years  of  age,  and  not  charged  with  any  action." 
These  were  acquitted. 

There  are  preserved  only  two  copies  of  a  broad- 
side published  in  Boston  in  July  of  1704  which 
quaintly  portrays  the  strenuous  efforts  made  to  save 
the  souls  of  the  condemned  pirates  who  must  have 
been  men  of  uncommonly  stout  endurance  to  stand 
up  under  the  sermons  with  which  they  were  bom- 
barded.   This  little  pamphlet  may  serve  as  a  warn- 


JOHN  QUELCH  173 

ing  to  venturesome  boys  of  the  twentieth  century 
who  yearn  to  go  a-pirating  and  to  bury  treasure. 

An  Account  of  the  Behaviour  and  Last  Dying 

SPEECHES 
Of  the   Six  Pirates  that  were   Executed  on   Charles 

River,  Boston  side,  On  Fryday,  June  30th.     1704. 

Viz. 
Captain  John  Quelch,  John  Lambert,  Christopher  Scud- 
amore,    John    Miller,    Erasmus    Peterson,    and    Peter 
Roach. 

The  Ministers  of  the  Town  had  used  more  than  ordi- 
nary Endeavours  to  Instruct  the  Prisoners,  and  bring 
them  to  Repentance.  There  were  Sermons  Preached 
in  their  hearing  Every  Day ;  And  Prayers  daily  made 
with  them.  And  they  were  Catechised ;  and  they  had 
many  occasional  Exhortations.  And  nothing  was  left 
that  could  be  done  for  their  Good. 

On  Fryday,  the  30th  of  June,  1704,  Pursuant  to  Orders 
in  the  Dead  Warrant,  the  aforesaid  Pirates  were  guarded 
from  the  Prison  in  Boston  by  Forty  Musketeers,  Consta- 
bles of  the  Town,  the  Provost  Marshal  and  his  Officers, 
etc.  with  two  Ministers  who  took  great  pains  to  prepare 
them  for  the  last  Article  of  their  Lives.  Being  allowed 
to  walk  on  foot  through  the  Town,  to  Scarlet's  Wharf: 
where  the  Silver  Oar  being  carried  before  them,  they  went 
by  Water  to  the  Place  of  Execution  being  crowded  and 
thronged  on  all  sides  by  Multitudes  of  Spectators.  The 
Ministers  then  spoke  to  the  Malefactors  to  this  Effect: 

"We  have  told  you  often,  yea,  we  have  told  you  weep- 
ing, that  you  have  by  Sin  undone  yourselves;  That  you 
were  born  Sinners;  That  you  have  lived  Sinners;  That 
your  Sins  have  been  many  and  mighty;  and  that  the  Sins 
for  which  you  are  now  to  Dy,  are  of  no  Common  aggrava- 
tion. We  have  told  you  that  there  is  a  Saviour  for  Sin- 
ners, and  we  have  shewn  you  how  to  commit  yourselves 
into  his  Saving  and  Healing  Hands.     We  have  told  you 


174         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

that  if  He  Save  you  He  will  give  you  as  hearty  Repentance 
for  all  your  Sins,  and  we  have  shewn  you  how  to  Express 
that  Repentance.  We  have  told  you  what  Marks  of  Life 
must  be  desired  for  your  Souls,  that  you  may  Safely  ap- 
pear before  the  Judgment  Seat  of  God.  Oh!  That  the 
means  used  for  your  Good  may  by  the  Grace  of  God  be 
made  Effectual.  We  can  do  no  more,  but  leave  you  in  His 
Merciful  Hands." 

When  they  were  gone  upon  the  Stage,  and  Silence  was 
Commanded,  One  of  the  Ministers  Prayed  as  f olloweth : 

"Oh!  Thou  most  Great  and  Glorious  LORD!  Thou  art 
a  Righteous  and  a  Terrible  God.  It  is  a  righteous  and  an 
Holy  Law  that  thus  hast  given  unto  all,  but  what  would 
soon  have  done  the  worst  things  in  the  World.  Oh !  The 
Free-Grace!  Oh!  The  Riches  of  that  Grace,  which  has 
made  all  the  Difference!  But  now,  we  cry  us.  To  break 
that  Good  Law,  and  Sin  against  thy  Infinite  Majesty  can 
be  no  little  Evil.  Thy  Word  is  always  True,  and  very 
Particular,  that  Word  of  thine  which  has  told  us  and 
warned  us,  EVIL  PURSUE  TH  SINNERS.  We  have  seen 
it,  we  have  seen  it.  We  have  before  our  Eyes  a  dreadful 
Demonstration  of  it.  Oh !  Sanctify  unto  us,  a  Sight  that 
has  in  it  so  much  of  the  Terror  of  the  Lord ! 

1 '  Here  is  a  Number  of  men  that  have  been  very  great  Sin- 
ners, and  that  are  to  Dy  before  their  Time,  for  their  being 
wicked  overmuch. 

".  .  .  But  now  we  cry  mightily  to  Heaven,  we  Lift 
up  our  Cries  to  the  God  of  all  Grace,  for  the  Perishing 
Souls  which  are  just  now  going  to  Expire  under  the  Stroke 
of  Justice,  before  our  Eyes.  We  Mourn,  we  Mourn,  that 
upon  some  of  them  at  least,  we  do  unto  this  minute  see 
no  better  Symptoms.  But,  Oh!  is  there  not  yet  a  Room 
for  Sovereign  Grace  to  be  display 'd,  in  their  Conversion 
and  Salvation  ?  They  Perish  if  they  do  not  now  Sincerely 
turn  from  Sin  to  God,  and  give  themselves  up  to  the  Lord 
JESUS  CHRIST;  They  Righteously  and  Horribly  Perish! 
And  yet,  without  Influences  from  above,  they  can  do  none 
of  those  things  which  must  be  done  if  they  do  not  perish. 


JOHN  QUELCH  175 

Oh!  let  us  beg  it  of  our  God  that  He  would  not  be  so 
Provoked  at  their  Multiplied  and  Prodigious  Impieties, 
and  at  their  obstinate  Hardness  under  means  of  Good  for- 
merly afforded  them,  as  to  withhold  those  Influences  from 
them.  We  cry  to  thee,  O  God  of  all  Grace,  That  thou 
wouldst  not  Suffer  them  to  continue  in  the  Gall  of  Bitter- 
ness and  Bond  of  Iniquity,  and  in  the  Possession  of  the 
Devil.  Oh!  Knock  off  the  Chains  of  Death  which  are 
upon  their  Souls;  Oh!  Snatch  the  prey  out  of  the  Hands 
of  the  Terrible. 

".  .  .  Discover  to  them,  the  only  Saviour  of  their 
Souls.  Oh!  Dispose  them,  Oh!  Assist  them  to  give  the 
Consent  of  their  Souls  unto  His  Wonderful  Proposals. 
Let  them  dy  Renouncing  all  Dependence  on  any  Right- 
eousness of  their  own.  Alas,  what  can  they  have  of  their 
own  to  Depend  upon!  As  a  Token  and  Effect  of  their 
having  Accepted  the  Righteousness  of  God,  Let  them 
heartily  Repent  of  all  their  Sins  against  thee,  and  Abhor 
and  cast  up  every  Morsel  of  their  Iniquity.  Oh!  Let 
them  not  go  out  of  the  World  raging  and  raving  against 
the  Justice  of  God  and  Man.  And  whatever  part  of  the 
Satanick  Image  is  yet  remaining  on  their  Souls,  Oh!  Ef- 
face it!  Let  them  now  dy  in  such  a  State  and  such  a 
Frame  as  may  render  them  fit  to  appear  before  God  the 
Judge  of  all.     What  shall  plead  for  them? 

"Great  GOD  grant  that  all  the  Spectators  may  get  Good 
by  the  horrible  Spectacle  that  is  now  before  them!  Let 
all  the  People  hear  and  fear,  and  let  no  more  any  such 
Wickedness  be  done  as  has  produced  this  woeful  Spectacle. 
And  let  all  the  People  beware  how  they  go  on  in  the  ways 
of  Sin,  and  in  the  paths  of  the  Destroyer,  after  so  Solemn 
Warnings. 

' '  Oh !  but  shall  our  Sea-faring  Tribe  on  this  Occasion  be 
in  a  Singular  manner  affected  with  the  Warnings  of  God ! 
Lord,  May  those  our  dear  Bretheren  be  Saved  from  the 
Temptations  which  do  so  threaten  them !  Oh !  Let  them  not 
Abandon  Themselves  to  Profanity,  to  Swearing,  to  Cursing, 
to  Drinking,  to  Lewdness,  to  a  cursed  Forgetfulness  of  their 


176        'THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Maker,  and  of  the  End  for  which  He  made  them!  Oh! 
Let  them  not  be  abandoned  of  God  unto  those  Courses  that 
will  hasten  them  to  a  Damnation  that  slumbers  not!  Oh! 
Let  the  men  hear  the  Lord  exceedingly,  We  Pray  thee! 
Let  the  Condition  of  the  Six  or  Seven  men  whom  they  now 
see  Dying  for  their  Wickedness  upon  the  Sea  be  Sanctified 
unto  them.     .     .     ." 

They  then  severally  Spoke,  Viz. 
— I — Captain  John  Quelch.  The  last  Words  he  spoke 
to  one  of  the  Ministers  at  his  going  up  the  Stage  were, 
I  am  not  afraid  of  Death.  I  am  not  afraid  of  the  Gallows, 
out  I  am  afraid  of  what  follows;  I  am  afraid  of  a  Great 
God,  and  a  Judgment  to  Come.  But  he  afterwards  seem'd 
to  brave  it  out  too  much  against  that  fear;  also  when  on 
the  Stage  first  he  pulled  off  his  Hat,  and  bowed  to  the 
Spectators,  and  not  concerned,  nor  behaving  himself  so 
much  like  a  Dying  man  as  some  would  have  done.  The 
Ministers  had  in  the  Way  to  his  Execution  much  desired 
him  to  Glorify  God  at  his  Death,  by  bearing  a  due  Testi- 
mony against  the  Sins  that  had  ruined  him,  and  for  the 
ways  of  Religion  which  he  had  much  neglected;  yet  now 
being  called  upon  to  speak  what  he  had  to  say,  it  was  but 
this  much.  What  I  have  to  say  is  this.  I  desire  to  be 
informed  for  what  I  am  here.  I  am  Condemned  only  upon 
Circumstances.  I  forgive  all  the  World.  So  the  Lord  be 
Merciful  to  my  Soul.  When  Lambert  was  Warning  the 
Spectators  to  beware  of  Bad  Company,  Quelch  joyning 
They  should  also  take  care  how  they  brought  Money  into 
New  England,  to  be  Hanged  for  it! 

— II — John  Lambert.  He  appeared  much  hardened,  and 
pleaded  much  on  his  Innocency;  He  desired  all  men  to 
beware  of  Bad  Company;  he  seem'd  in  a  great  Agony 
near  his  Execution;  he  called  much  and  frequently  on 
Christ  for  Pardon  of  Sin,  that  God  Almighty  would  save 
his  innocent  Soul;  he  desired  to  forgive  all  the  World. 
His  last  words  were,  Lord,  forgive  my  Soul!  Oh,  receive 
me  into  Eternity!  Blessed  Name  of  Christ,  receive  my 
Soul; 


JOHN  QUELCH  177 

— Ill — Christopher  Scudamore.  He  appeared  very  Peni- 
tent since  his  Condemnation,  was  very  diligent  to  improve 
his  time  going  to,  and  at  the  place  of  Execution. 
— IV — John  Miller.  He  seem'd  much  concerned,  and 
complained  of  a  great  Burden  of  Sins  to  answer  for;  ex- 
pressing often  Lord,  what  shall  I  do  to  be  Saved! 
— V — Erasmus  Peterson.  He  cryed  of  injustice  done  him, 
and  said  It  is  very  hard  for  so  many  lives  to  be  taken 
away  for  a  little  Gold.  He  often  said  his  Peace  was  made 
with  God,  and  his  Soul  would  be  with  God,  yet  extream 
hard  to  forgive  those  he  said  had  wronged  him.  He  told 
the  Executioner,  he  was  a  strong  man,  and  Prayed  to  be 
put  out  of  misery  as  soon  as  possible. 

— VI — Peter  Roach.  He  seem'd  little  concerned,  and  said 
but  little  or  nothing  at  all.  Francis  King  was  also  brought 
to  the  place  of  Execution  but  Repriev'd. 

Printed  for  and  Sold  by  Nicholas  Boone,  at  his  Shop 
near  the  Old  Meeting-House  in  Boston.     1704. 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

There  is  now  in  the  Press  and  will  speedily  be  Pub- 
lished: The  Arraignment,  Tryal  and  Condemnation  of 
Captain  John  Quelch,  and  others  of  his  Company  etc.  for 
sundry  Piracies,  Robberies  and  Murder  committed  upon 
the  Subjects  of  the  King  of  Portugal,  Her  Majesties  Allie, 
on  the  Coast  of  Brasil  etc.  "Who  upon  full  Evidence  were 
found  guilty  at  the  Court-House  in  Boston  on  the  13th  of 
June  1704.  With  the  Arguments  of  the  Queen's  Council 
and  Council  for  the  Prisoners,  upon  the  Act  for  the  more 
effectual  Suppression  of  Piracy.  With  an  account  of  the 
Ages  of  the  several  Prisoners,  and  the  Places  where  they 
were  Born. 

The  News-Letter  was  less  inclined  to  vouch  for 
the  pious  inclinations  of  these  poor  wretches,  and 
gravely  stated  that  "  notwithstanding  all  the  great 
labour  and  pains  taken  by  the  Reverend  Ministers 


178         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

of  the  Town  of  Boston,  ever  since  they  were  first 
Seized  and  brought  to  Town,  both  before  and  since 
their  Tryal  and  Condemnation,  to  instruct,  admon- 
ish, preach,  and  pray  for  them:  yet  as  they  had  led 
a  wicked  and  vicious  life,  so  to  appearance  they 
dyed  very  obdurately  and  impenitently,  hardened  in 
their  Sins." 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  figure  of  bold  John  Quelch 
on  the  gallows,  bowing  to  the  spectators,  hat  in 
hand,  was  that  of  no  whimpering  coward,  and  one 
admires  him  for  that  grimly  sardonic  touch  of  humor 
as  he  warned  the  silent,  curious  multitude  to  take 
care  "how  they  brought  money  into  New  England, 
to  be  hanged  for  it."  Among  these  devout  and 
somber  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  who  listened  to  that 
singularly  moving  prayer,  tremendous  in  its  sincer- 
ity, were  more  than  a  few  who  were  bringing  money 
into  New  England  by  means  of  trade  in  rum  and 
negroes,  or  very  quietly  buying  and  selling  the  mer- 
chandise fetched  home  by  pirates  who  were  lucky 
enough  to  keep  clear  of  the  law.  The  Massachusetts 
colonists  dearly  loved  to  make  public  parade  of  a 
rogue  caught  in  the  act,  and  to  see  six  pirates  hanged 
at  once  was  a  rare  holiday  indeed. 

These  only  of  the  number  convicted  and  con- 
demned were  hanged.  All  the  others  were  pardoned 
a  year  later  by  Queene  Anne  at  the  recommendation 
of  Governor  Dudley,  with  the  exhortation  "that  as 
they  had  now  new  Lives  given  them,  they  should 
be  new  men,  and  be  very  faithful  and  diligent  in 
the  Service  of  Her  Majesty ;  who  might  as  easily  and 
justly  have  ordered  their  Execution  this  day  as  sent 
their  Pardon."  As  one  way  of  turning  pirates  to 
some  useful  account,  these  forgiven  rogues  were 
promptly  drafted  into  the  royal  navy  as  able  sea- 


JOHN  QUELCH  179 

men,  and  doubtless  made  excellent  food  for  powder. 
Although  a  large  part  of  that  hundred  weight  of 
gold  was  successfully  concealed  by  Quelch  and  his 
comrades,  either  buried  at  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  or 
otherwise  spirited  away,  enough  of  it  was  recovered 
to  afford  a  division  of  the  spoils  among  various  of- 
ficials in  a  manner  so  suggestive  of  petty  graft  as 
to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  piracy  was  not  en- 
tirely a  maritime  trade  in  Puritan  Boston.  Every 
man  Jack  of  them  who  had  anything  whatever  to 
do  with  catching  or  keeping  or  hanging  Quelch  and 
his  fellows  poked  his  fingers  into  the  bag  of  gold.  It 
seems  like  very  belated  muck-raking  to  fish  up  the 
document  that  tells  in  detail  what  became  of  so  much 
of  the  Quelch  treasure  as  fell  into  the  greedy  hands 
of  the  authorities,  but  here  are  the  tell-tale  figures : 
"To  Stephen  North,  who  kept  the  Star  Tavern  in 
which  the  trial  was  held,  for  entertainment  of  the 
Commissioners  during  the  sitting  of  the  Court  of 
Admiralty,  and  for  Witnesses,  Twenty-eight  pounds, 
Eleven  shillings,  and  six  pence. 
1 '  To  Lieut.  Gov.  Usher,  Expenses  in  securing  and  re- 
turning of  James  Austin's  Gold  from  the  Province 
of  New  Hampshire,  Three  pounds,  ten  shillings. 
"To  Richard  Jesse,  Sheriffe  of  New  Hampshire  and 
his  Officers  and  under  keeper,  for  charge  of  keep- 
ing the  said  Austin,  expenses  in  his  sickness,  and 
charge  of  conveying  him  into  this  Province,  Nine 
pounds,  five  shillings. 

"To  Mr.  James  Menzies  of  Council  for  the  Prison- 
ers on  their  Tryal,  as  signed  by  the  Commissioners, 
Twenty  Pounds. 

"To  Henry  Franklyn,  Marshal  of  the  Admiralty  for 
the  Gibbet,  Guards,  and  execution,  Twenty-nine 
pounds,   nineteen    shillings.     Later   forty   shillings 


180         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

added  to  Thomas  Barnard  for  erecting  the  gibbet. 
"To  Samuel  Wakefield,  Deputy  Marshal  of  the  Ad- 
miralty, for  charges  in  apprehending  several  of  the 
said  Pirates,  Four  Pounds,  five  shillings  and  six 
pence. 

"To  Mr.  Apthorp  and  Mr.  Jesse,  two  of  the  Con- 
stables of  Boston  for  their  service  about  appre- 
hending the  said  Pirates,  forty  shillings. 
"To  the  Constables  of  the  Several  Towns  betwixt 
Bristol  and  Boston  for  apprehending  and  conveying 
of  Christopher  Scudamore,  two  pounds,  eighteen  shil- 
lings. 

"To  Captain  Edward  Brattle,  charges  on  a  Negro 
boy  imported  by  the  said  Pirates,  Twenty  five  shil- 
lings. 

"To  Andrew  Belcher,  Esq.,  charges  for  Clothing  of 
the  Witnesses  sent  to  England  with  Larrimore  and 
Wells,  charged  as  accessories,  seven  pounds,  eight- 
een shillings. 

"To  Paul  Dudley,  Esq.,  the  Queen's  Advocate  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  said  Pirates,  preparing  the 
said  Tryal  for  the  press,  supervising  of  the  same, 
and  for  his  service  relating  to  Captain  Larrimore, 
in  the  whole,  Thirty-six  pounds. 
"To  Thomas  Newton,  Esq.  of  Council  for  the  Queen 
in  the  said  Tryal,  ten  pounds. 

"To  Mr.  John  Valentine,  Kegister,  for  his  service 
on  the  Tryal  and  for  transcribing  them  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  her  Majesty's  High  Court  of  Admiralty  in 
England,  Thirteen  pounds. 

"To  Mr.  Sheriff  e  Dyer,  for  his  service  relating  to  the 
said  Prisoners,  Five  pounds. 

"To  Wm.  Clarke  of  Boston,  for  Casks,  shifting  and 
landing  the  Sugar  and  other  things  piratically  and 
feloniously  obtained  by  Captain  Quelch  and  Com- 


JOHN  QUELCH  181 

pany,  and  for  storage  of  them,  Thirteen  pounds. 
1 'To  Daniel  Willard,  Keeper  of  the  Prison  in  Bos- 
ton, toward  the  charge  of  feeding  and  keeping  of 
the  said  Pirates,  Thirty  pounds. 
"To  Andrew  Belcher,  the  Commissary-General,  an 
additional  sum  of  five  pounds  nine  shillings  and  six 
pence  for  necessary  clothing  supplied  to  some  of  the 
Pirates  in  prison. 

"To  Major  James  Sewall  for  his  pursuit  and  ap- 
prehension of  seven  of  the  Pirates,  and  for  the  grat- 
ification of  himself,  Captain  Turner,  and  other  of- 
ficers, one  hundred  and  thirty-two  pounds,  five 
shillings. ' ' 

The  commissioners,  Sewall,  Byfield  and  Paul  Dud- 
ley, received  for  their  expenses  and  services,  twenty- 
five  pounds,  seven  shillings,  and  ten  pence. 

Finally,  there  were  given  to  the  captains  of  the 
several  companies  of  militia  in  the  town  for  Boston, 
"for  their  charges  and  expenses  on  Guards  and 
Watches  on  the  Pirates  during  their  Imprisonment, 
Twenty-seven  pounds,  sixteen  shillings,  and  three 
pence:  to  Captain  Tuthill,  for  his  assistance  to 
secure  and  bring  about  the  Vessel  and  goods  from 
Marblehead,  five  pounds;  to  Mr.  Jeremiah  Allen,  the 
Treasurer's  bookkeeper,  for  his  care  and  service 
about  the  said  Gold  and  goods,  five  pounds ;  to  Con- 
stable Apthorp  and  Jesse,  for  their  services,  a  fur- 
ther allowance  of  three  pounds." 

The  amount  of  the  ' '  royal  bounty ' '  given  the  Gov- 
ernor as  his  share  of  the  pirates'  booty,  is  not  re- 
corded. If  the  belief  of  those  of  their  contempo- 
raries who  best  know  the  Dudleys  may  be  relied  on, 
the  fees  and  emoluments  officially  awarded  them 
were  by  no  means  the  extent  of  the  profits  from  their 
dealings  with  the  pirates  and  their  treasure.    When 


182         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Cotton  Mather  quarreled  with  Governor  Dudley  a 
few  years  later  he  did  not  hesitate  to  intimate  this 
charge  pretty  broadly  in  the  following  passage  in  his 
memorial  on  Dudley's  administration: 

"There  have  been  odd  Collusions  with  the  Pyrates 
of  Quelch's  Company,  of  which  one  instance  is,  That 
there  was  extorted  the  sum  of  about  Thirty  Pounds 
from  some  of  the  crew  for  liberty  to  walk  at  certain 
times  in  the  prison  yard.  And  this  liberty  having 
been  allowed  for  two  or  three  days  unto  them,  they 
were  again  confined  to  their  former  wretched  cir- 
cumstances. ' ' 


CHAPTEE   VII 

THE  AKMADA  GALLEON  OF  TOBERMORY  BAY 

Between  the  western  Highlands  of  Scotland  and 
the  remote,  cloudy  Hebrides  lies  the  large  island  of 
Mull  on  a  sound  of  that  name.  Its  bold  headlands 
are  crowned  with  the  ruins  of  gray  castles  that  were 
once  the  strongholds  of  the  clans  of  the  MacLeans 
and  the  MacDonalds.  Along  these  shores  and  waters 
one  generation  after  another  of  kilted  fighting  men, 
savage  as  red  Indians,  raided  and  burned  and  slew 
in  feuds  whose  memories  are  crowded  with  tragedy 
and  romance.  Near  where  Mull  is  washed  by  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Sound  opens  toward  the  thorough- 
fares of  the  deep-sea  shipping  is  the  pleasant  town 
of  Tobermory,  which  in  the  Gaelic  means  Mary's 
Well.  The  bay  that  it  faces  is  singularly  beautiful, 
almost  landlocked,  and  of  a  depth  sufficient  to  shelter 
a  fleet. 

Into  this  Bay  of  Tobermory  there  sailed  one  day 
a  great  galleon  of  Spain,  belonging  to  that  mighty 
Armada  which  had  been  shattered  and  driven  in 
frantic  flight  by  English  seamen  with  hearts  of  oak 
under  Drake,  Hawkins,  Howard,  Seymour,  and  Mar- 
tin Frobisher,  names  to  make  the  blood  beat  faster 
even  now.  The  year  was  1588,  in  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth, long,  long,  ago.  This  fugitive  galleon,  afore- 
time so  tall  and  stately  and  ornate,  was  racked  and 
leaking,  her  painted  sails  in  tatters,  her  Spanish  sail- 
ors sick,  weary,  starved,  after  escaping  from  the 

183 


184         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

English  Channel  and  faring  far  northward  aronnd 
the  stormy  Orkneys.  Many  of  her  sister  ships  had 
crashed  ashore  on  the  Irish  coast  while  the  surviv- 
ing remnant  of  this  magnificent  flotilla  wallowed 
forlornly  home.  Seeking  provisions,  repairs,  respite 
from  the  terrors  of  the  implacable  ocean  the  gal- 
leon Florencia  dropped  anchor  in  Tobermory  Bay, 
and  there  she  laid  her  bones. 

With  her,  it  is  said,  was  lost  a  great  store  of 
treasure  in  gold  and  plate,  and  ever  since  1641,  for 
more  than  two  and  a  half  centuries,  the  search  for 
these  riches  has  been  carried  on  at  intervals.  More 
than  likely,  if  you  should  go  in  one  of  Donald  Mac- 
Brayne's  steamers  through  the  Sound  of  Mull  next 
summer,  and  a  delightful  excursion  it  is,  you  would 
find  an  up-to-date  suction  dredge  and  a  corps  of 
divers,  employed  by  the  latest  syndicate  to  finance 
the  treasure  hunt,  ransacking  the  mud  of  Tobermory 
Bay  in  the  hope  of  finding  the  Spanish  gold  of  the 
Florencia.  Many  thousands  have  been  vainly  spent 
in  the  quest,  but  the  lure  of  lost  treasure  has  a  fasci- 
nation of  its  own,  and  after  all  the  failure  of  Scotch 
and  English  seekers,  American  enterprise  and  cap- 
ital have  now  taken  hold  of  this  romantic  task. 

With  the  history  of  the  Florencia  galleon  and  her 
treasure  is  intimately  interwoven  the  stirring  chron- 
icle of  the  deeds  of  the  MacLeans  of  Mull  and  the 
MacDonalds  of  Islay  and  Skye.  Out  of  the  echoing 
past,  the  fanfare  of  Spanish  trumpets  is  mingled 
with  the  skirl  of  the  pipes,  and  the  rapier  of  Toledo 
flashes  beside  the  claymore  of  the  Highlanders. 
The  story  really  begins  long  before  the  doomed 
galleon  sought  refuge  in  Tobermory  Bay.  There 
were  island  chieftains  of  the  Clan  MacLean,  busy  at 
cutting  the  throats  of  their  enemies,  as  far  remote 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  185 

in  time  as  the  thirteenth  century,  but  their  turbulent 
pedigrees  need  not  concern  our  narrative  until  the 
warlike  figure  of  Lachlan  Mo'r  MacLean,  "Big  Lal- 
lan," steps  into  its  pages  in  the  year  of  1576. 

It  was  then  that  he  came  of  age  and  set  out  from 
the  Court  of  James  VI  at  Edinburgh,  where  he  had 
been  brought  up,  to  claim  his  inherited  estates  of 
Mull.  His  wicked  step-father,  Hector,  met  him  in 
the  castle  of  Duart  whose  stout  walls  and  battle- 
ments still  loom  not  far  from  Tobermory  and  tried  to 
set  him  aside  with  false  and  foolish  words.  The  as- 
tute youth  perceived  that  if  he  were  to  come  into  his 
own,  he  must  be  up  and  doing,  wherefore  he  speed- 
ily mustered  friends  and  led  them  into  Castle  Duart 
by  night.  They  carried  this  scheming  step-father 
to  the  island  of  Coll  and  there  beheaded  him,  which 
made  Lachlan 's  title  clear  to  the  lands  of  his  an- 
cestors. 

The  next  to  mistake  the  mettle  of  young  Lachlan 
Mo'r  was  no  less  than  Colin  Campbell,  sixth  Earl 
of  Argyll,  head  of  a  family  very  powerful  in  the 
Highlands  even  to  this  day.  He  was  for  seizing 
the  estate  by  force  after  plotting  to  no  purpose,  and 
Angus  MacDonald  of  Dunyweg  was  persuaded  to 
help  him  with  several  hundred  fighting  men.  Thus 
began  the  feud  between  the  MacLeans  and  MacDon- 
alds  which  a  few  years  later  was  to  involve  that 
great  galleon  Florencia  of  the  Armada.  Argyll 
and  his  force  wasted  the  lands  of  Lachlan  with  fire 
and  sword,  and  besieged  one  of  his  strongholds  with 
twelve  hundred  followers. 

War  thus  begun  was  waged  without  mercy,  and 
one  bloody  episode  followed  on  the  heels  of  another. 
At  the  head  of  his  clansmen,  Lachlan  swept  into 
Argyle's  country  and  made  him  cry  quits.     This  was 


186         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

a  large  achievement,  and  the  spirited  young  Lord  of 
Duart  was  hailed  as  a  Highland  chief  worthy  of  the 
king's  favor.  He  went  to  court,  was  flattered  by 
the  great  men  there,  and  became  the  hero  of  as 
pretty  and  gallant  a  romance  as  heart  could  wish. 
The  king  arranged  that  he  should  marry  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  powerful  Earl  of  Athol,  and  Lachlan  could 
not  say  his  sovereign  nay.  The  contract  arranged, 
he  started  for  Mull  to  make  ready  for  the  wedding, 
but  chanced  to  visit  on  the  way  William  Cunningham, 
Earl  of  Glencairn,  at  his  castle  overlooking  the 
Clyde. 

Cards  were  played  to  while  away  the  evening,  and 
Lachlan 's  partner  was  one  of  the  daughters  of  the 
host.  It  so  happened  that  the  game  was  changed 
and  the  players  again  cut  for  partners.  At  this  an- 
other daughter,  the  fair  Margaret  Cunningham, 
whispered  to  her  sister  that  if  the  handsome  High- 
land chief  had  been  her  partner,  "she  would  not 
have  hazarded  the  loss  of  him  by  cutting  anew." 
Lachlan  overheard  the  compliment,  as  perhaps  he 
was  meant  to  do,  and  so  far  as  he  was  concerned 
hearts  were  trumps  from  that  moment.  He  wooed 
and  won  Margaret  Cunningham  and  married  her 
forthwith.  The  king  was  greatly  offended  but  what 
cared  this  happy  man?  He  carried  his  bride  to 
Duart  and  laughed  at  his  foes. 

The  quiet  life  at  home  was  not  for  him,  however. 
Soon  he  was  playing  the  game  of  the  sword  with 
the  MacDonalds  of  Islay  until  a  truce  was  patched 
by  means  of  a  marriage  between  the  clans.  There 
was  peace  for  a  time,  but  the  trouble  blazed  anew 
over  the  matter  of  some  lifted  cattle,  and  they  were 
at  it  again  hammer-and-tongs.  The  royal  policy 
seems  to  have  been  to  permit  these  Highland  game- 
cocks to  fight  each  other  so  long  as  they  were  fairly 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  187 

well  matched.  In  this  case  the  various  MacDonalds 
combined  in  such  numbers  against  Lachlan  MacLean 
that  the  king  interfered  and  persuaded  them  to  seek 
terms  of  reconciliation.  Accordingly  the  Lord  of 
the  MacDonalds  journeyed  to  Duart  Castle  with  his 
retinue  of  bare-legged  gentlemen  and  was  hospitably 
received.  Lachlan  was  canny  as  well  as  braw,  and 
he  clinched  the  terms  of  peace  by  first  locking  the 
visitors  in  a  room  whose  walls  were  some  twenty 
feet  thick,  and  then  holding  as  hostages  the  two 
young  sons  of  Angus  MacDonald. 

The  high-tempered  MacDonald  was  naturally  more 
exasperated  than  pacified,  and  he  turned  the  tables 
when  Lachlan  soon  after  went  to  Islay  to  receive  per- 
formance of  the  promises  made  touching  certain 
lands  in  dispute.  The  Highland  code  of  honor  was 
peculiar  in  that  treachery  appears  to  have  been  a 
weapon  used  without  scruple.  The  MacDonalds 
swore  that  not  a  MacLean  should  suffer  harm,  but 
no  sooner  had  Lachlan  and  his  clansmen  and  serv- 
ants arrived  than  they  were  attacked  at  night  by  a 
large  force.  The  party  would  have  been  put  to  the 
sword,  but  that  Lachlan  rushed  into  the  midst  of  the 
foe  holding  aloft  one  of  MacDonald's  sons  as  a 
shield. 

This  caused  postponement  of  the  slaughter,  Mac- 
Donald offering  quarter  if  his  child  should  be  deliv- 
ered to  him.  The  MacLeans  were  disarmed  and 
bound,  except  two  young  men  who  had  distinguished 
themselves  by  laying  many  a  MacDonald  low  in  the 
heather.  These  were  beheaded  at  once,  and  begin- 
ning next  morning  two  MacLeans  were  led  out  and 
executed  each  day  in  the  presence  of  their  own  chief 
until  no  more  than  Lachlan  and  his  uncle  were  left. 
They  were  spared  only  because  the  sanguinary  Angus 


188         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

MacDonald  fell  from  his  horse  and  was  badly  hurt 
before  he  could  finish  his  program. 

It  would  be  tiresome  to  relate  much  more  of  this 
ensanguined,  interminable  game  of  give  and  take 
which  was  the  chief  business  of  the  Highland  clans 
in  that  century.  The  clan  of  the  Maclans  whose  seat 
was  at  Ardnamurchan  Castle  on  Mull  later  sided  ac- 
tively with  the  MacDonalds  and  the  feud  became 
three-cornered.  Lachlan  Mo'r  MacLean  was  no 
petty  warrior,  and  his  men  were  numbered  by  the 
thousand  when  he  was  in  the  prime  of  his  power. 
Once  he  fell  upon  the  island  of  Islay  and  put  to  the 
ciword  as  many  as  five  hundred  of  his  foes,  "all  the 
men  capable  of  bearing  arms  belonging  to  the  Clan- 
donald,"  says  an  old  account.  Angus  himself  was 
chased  into  his  castle  and  forced  to  give  over  half  of 
Islay  to  Lachlan  to  save  his  skin. 

Now,  indeed,  was  there  a  mustering  of  the  Mac- 
Donalds  from  near  and  far  to  invade  Mull.  They 
gathered  under  the  chiefs  of  Kintyre,  Skye  and  Islay, 
with  the  lesser  clans  under  MacNeil  of  Gigha,  the 
MacAllisters  of  Loupe,  and  the  MacPhees  of  Colon- 
say.  Bold  Lachlan  Mo'r  MacLean  was  outnum- 
bered, but  a  singular  stroke  of  luck  enabled  him 
to  win  a  decisive  battle.  That  MacDonald  who 
was  called  the  Eed  Knight  of  Sleat,  was  much  dis- 
turbed and  shaken  by  a  dream  in  which  a  voice 
chanted  a  very  doleful  prophecy  of  which  this  is  a 
sample : 

' '  Dire  are  the  deeds  the  fates  have  doomed  on  thee ! 
Defeated  by  the  sons  of  Gillean  the  invading  host  shall  be. 
On  thee,  Gearna-Dubh,1  streams  of  blood  shall  flow ; 
And  the  bold  Red  Knight  shall  die  ere  a  sword  is  sheathed. ' ' 

i  A  cliff  which  was  the  key  to  the  position  held  by  the  MacLeans. 


Duart  Castle,  chief  stronghold  of  the  MacLeans. 


Ardnamurchan  Castle,  seat  of  the  Maclans  and  the  MacDonalds. 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  189 

This  message  caused  the  Bed  Knight  to  sound 
the  retreat  soon  after  the  fray  began,  and  his  exam- 
ple spread  panic  among  the  force  which  broke  and 
ran  for  their  boats,  and  the  best  MacDonald  was  he 
who  first  reached  the  beach.  The  claymores  of  the 
MacLeans  hewed  them  down  without  mercy  and  their 
heads  were  chopped  off  and  thrown  into  a  well  which 
has  since  borne  a  Gaelic  name  descriptive  of  the 
event.  It  would  seem  that  these  clans  must  have  ex- 
terminated each  other  by  this  time,  but  the  bleak 
moors  and  rocky  slopes  of  these  western  islands 
bore  a  wonderful  crop  of  fighting  men,  and  soon  the 
MacLeans  were  invading  the  coast  of  Lorn  and 
spreading  havoc  among  the  MacDonalds  with  great 
slaughter. 

Lachlan  found  time  also  to  seek  vengeance  on  the 
Maclans  for  daring  to  meddle  in  his  affairs.  John 
Maclan,  chief  of  that  smaller  clan  which  owed  fealty 
to  the  MacDonalds,  had  been  a  suitor  for  the  hand 
of  Lachlan  Mo'r  MacLean's  mother,  who  was  a  sis- 
ter of  the  Earl  of  Carlyle,  and  had  a  fortune  in  her 
own  right.  Now  the  Maclan  renewed  his  attentions, 
and  Lachlan  looked  on  grimly,  aware  that  the  motive 
was  greed  of  gold  and  lands.  His  mother  gave  her 
consent  but  her  two-fisted  son  made  no  objection 
until  the  Maclan  came  to  Mull  to  claim  his  bride. 
The  marriage  was  performed  in  the  presence  of  Lach- 
lan and  his  most  distinguished  retainers,  and  there 
was  a  feast  and  much  roaring  conviviality.  In  the 
evening,  the  company  being  hot  with  wine,  a  rash 
Maclan  brought  up  the  matter  of  the  recent  feud  and 
a  pretty  quarrel  was  brewed  in  a  twinkling. 

Several  of  the  Maclans  boasted  that  their  chief 
had  wed  "the  old  lady"  for  the  sake  of  her  wealth. 
"Drunkards  ever  tell  the  truth,"  flung  back  a  Mac- 


190         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Lean  with  which  he  plunged  a  dirk  into  the  heart 
of  the  tactless  guest.  Instantly  the  swords  were 
flashing,  and  hardly  a  Maclan  came  alive  out  of  the 
banqueting  hall.  Lachlan  missed  this  melee,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  but  coming  on  the  scene  a  lit- 
tle later  he  quoted  in  the  Gaelic  a  proverb  which 
means,  "If  the  fox  rushes  upon  the  hounds  he  must 
expect  to  be  torn."  His  followers  took  it  that  he 
felt  no  sorrow  at  the  fate  of  the  Maclans,  and  forth- 
with they  rushed  into  the  chamber  of  the  bridegroom, 
dragged  him  forth,  and  would  have  dispatched  him, 
but  the  lamentations  of  Lachlan's  mother  for  once 
moved  her  rugged  son  to  pity,  and  he  contented  him- 
self with  throwing  the  chief  of  the  Maclans  into  the 
dungeon  of  Duart  Castle. 

This  happened  in  the  summer  of  1588,  and  af- 
fairs were  in  this  wise  when  the  galleon  Florencia 
came  sailing  into  Tobermory  Bay.  Her  captain,  Don 
Pareira,  was  a  fiery  sea-fighter  whom  misfortune  had 
not  tamed.  These  savage  Highlanders  were  barba- 
rians in  his  eyes,  and  he  would  waste  no  courtesy 
on  them.  There  were  several  hundred  Spanish  sol- 
diers in  the  galleon,  of  the  great  army  of  troops  which 
had  been  sent  in  the  Armada  to  invade  England, 
and  Captain  Pareira  thought  himself  in  a  position 
to  demand  what  he  wanted.  He  sent  a  boat  ashore 
with  a  message  to  Lachlan  Mo'r  MacLean  at  his 
castle  at  Duart,  asking  that  provisions  be  furnished 
him,  and  adding  that  in  case  of  refusal  or  delay  he 
should  take  them  by  force.  To  this  Lachlan  sent 
back  the  haughty  reply  that  "the  wants  of  the  dis- 
tressed strangers  should  be  attended  to  after  the 
captain  of  the  Spanish  ship  had  been  taught  a  lesson 
in  courteous  behavior.  In  order  that  the  lesson 
might  be  taught  him  as  speedily  as  possible,  he  was 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  191 

invited  to  land  and  supply  his  wants  by  the  forcible 
means  of  which  he  boasted.  It  was  not  the  custom 
of  the  Chief  of  the  MacLeans  to  pay  attention  to  the 
demands  of  a  threatening  and  insolent  beggar." 

At  this  it  may  be  presumed  that  Captain  Pareira 
swore  a  few  rounds  of  crackling  oaths  in  his  beard 
as  he  strode  his  high-pooped  quarter-deck.  His  men 
who  had  gone  ashore  reported  that  the  MacLean 
was  an  ill  man  to  trifle  with  and  that  he  had  best  be 
let  alone.  Already  the  clan  was  gathering  to  repel 
a  landing  force  from  the  galleon.  The  captain  of 
the  battered  Florencia  took  wiser  counsel  with  him- 
self and  perceived  that  he  had  threatened  over 
hastily.  Pocketing  his  pride,  he  assured  the  ruffled 
Lachlan  of  Castle  Duart  that  he  would  pay  with  gold 
for  whatever  supplies  might  be  granted  him. 

Lachlan  had  other  fish  to  fry,  for  the  MacDonalds, 
exceedingly  wroth  at  the  scurvy  treatment  dealt  that 
luckless  bridegroom  and  ally,  the  chief  of  the  Mac- 
Ians,  were  up  in  arms  and  making  ready  to  avenge 
the  black  insult.  In  need  of  men  to  defend  himself, 
Lachlan  MacLean  struck  a  bargain  with  the  captain 
of  the  galleon.  If  Pareira  should  lend  him  a  hun- 
dred soldiers  from  the  Florencia  he  would  consider 
this  service  as  part  payment  for  the  supplies  and 
assistance  desired. 

Away  marched  the  contingent  from  the  galleon 
in  company  with  the  MacLean  clansmen,  and  laid 
siege  to  the  Maclan  castle  of  Mingarry  after  rava- 
ging the  small  islands  of  Rum  and  Eigg.  Lachlan 
Mo'r  was  carrying  all  before  him,  burning,  killing, 
plundering  both  MacDonalds  and  Maclans,  when 
Captain  Pareira  sent  him  word  that  the  Florencia 
was  ready  to  sail,  and  he  should  like  to  have  his  sol- 
diers returned,     To  this  MacLean  replied  that  the 


192         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

account  between  them  had  not  been  wholly  squared. 
There  was  the  matter  of  payment  promised  in  addi- 
tion to  the  loan  of  the  soldiers.  The  people  of  Tober- 
mory and  thereabouts  had  sent  grain  and  cattle 
aboard  the  galleon,  and  they  must  have  their  money 
before  sailing  day. 

Captain  Pareira  promised  that  every  satisfaction 
should  be  given  before  he  left  the  country,  and  again 
requested  that  his  hundred  soldadoes  be  marched 
back  to  their  ship. 

This  Lachlan  was  willing  to  do,  but  still  suspecting 
the  commander  of  the  galleon  as  a  wily  bird,  he  de- 
tained three  of  the  officers  of  the  troops  as  hostages 
to  assure  final  settlement.  Then  he  sent  on  board 
the  Florencia  young  Donald  Glas,  son  of  the  Mac- 
Lean  of  Morvern,  to  collect  what  was  due  and  adjust 
the  affair.  No  sooner  had  he  set  foot  on  deck,  than 
he  was  disarmed  and  bundled  below  by  order  of 
Pareira  who  considered  that  two  could  play  at  hold- 
ing that  form  of  collateral  known  as  hostages. 

Now  ensued  a  dead-lock.  Lachlan  MacLean  re- 
fused to  yield  up  his  brace  of  Spanish  officers  unless 
the  demands  of  his  people  were  paid  in  full,  while 
Captain  Pareira  kept  Donald  Glas  locked  in  a 
cabin  and  swore  to  carry  him  to  sea.  The  tragedy 
which  followed  is  told  in  the  traditions  of  Mull  to 
this  day.  When  Donald  Glas  learned  that  he  was 
kidnapped  in  the  galleon,  he  resolved  to  wreak  dread- 
ful revenge  for  the  treachery  dealt  his  kinsmen.  On 
the  morning  when  the  Florencia  weighed  anchor,  an 
attendant  who  had  been  confined  with  him  was  sent 
on  shore  and  Donald  sent  word  of  his  fell  intention 
to  the  chief  of  the  clan. 

Overnight  Donald  Glas  had  discovered  that  only  a 
bulkhead  separated  his  cabin  from  the  powder  maga- 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  193 

zine  of  the  galleon,  and  by  some  means,  which  tradi- 
tion omits  to  explain,  he  cut  a  hole  through  the  plank- 
ing and  laid  a  train  ready  for  the  match.  Just 
before  the  Florencia  weighed  anchor  he  was  fetched 
on  deck  for  a  moment  to  take  his  last  sight  of  the 
heathery  hills  of  Mull  and  Morvern.  Then  the  cap- 
tive was  thrust  back  into  his  cabin,  and  with  her 
great,  gay  banners  trailing  from  aloft,  the  galleon 
made  sail  and  began  slowly  to  move  away  from  the 
shore  of  Tobermory  Bay. 

It  was  then  that  Donald  Glas,  true  MacLean  was 
he,  fired  his  train  of  powder,  and  bang !  the  magazine 
exploded.  The  galleon  was  torn  asunder  with  ter- 
rific violence,  and  the  bodies  of  her  soldiers  and 
mariners  were  flung  far  over  the  bay  and  even  upon 
the  shore.  So  complete  was  the  destruction  that 
only  three  of  the  several  hundred  Spaniards  escaped 
alive.  The  Florencia  had  vanished  in  a  manner 
truly  epic,  and  proud  were  the  MacLeans  of  the  deed 
of  young  Donald  Glas  who  gave  his  life  for  the  honor 
of  his  clan. 

One  of  the  surviving  traditions  is  that  a  dog  be- 
longing to  Captain  Pareira  was  hurled  ashore  alive. 
The  faithful  creature,  when  it  had  recovered  from  its 
hurts,  refused  to  leave  that  part  of  the  strand  near- 
est the  wreck,  and  continued  to  howl  most  piteously 
by  day  and  night  as  long  as  it  existed,  which  was 
more  than  a  year.  The  Spanish  officers,  who  had  re- 
mained as  hostages  in  the  hands  of  Lachlan  Mo'r 
MacLean  were  set  at  liberty  by  that  sometimes 
courteous  chief,  and  were  permitted  to  proceed  to 
Edinburgh  where  they  lodged  complaint  with  the 
king  touching  the  destruction  of  their  galleon.  The 
matter  of  Captain  Pareira  having  been  disposed  of 
in  this  explosive  fashion,  Lachlan  MacLean  returned 


194         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

to  his  main  business  of  harrying  the  MacDonalds, 
and  so  fiercely  and  destructively  was  the  feud  con- 
ducted thereafter,  that  King  James  thought  it  time 
to  interfere,  lest  he  should  have  no  subjects  left  in 
the  Western  Highlands.  The  warring  chiefs  were 
summoned  to  Edinburgh  and  imprisoned  and  fined, 
after  which  they  made  their  peace  with  the  king  and 
returned  to  their  island  realms.  The  affair  of  the 
Florencia  was  named  in  the  charges  brought  against 
MacLean.  In  the  official  records  of  Holyrood  Pal- 
ace, seat  of  the  Scottish  kings,  is  this  information, 
laid  before  the  Privy  Council  on  January  3rd, 
1591: 

That  in  the  preceding  October,  Lachlan  MacLean 
"accompanied  with  a  great  number  of  thieves, 
broken  men  and  ...  of  clans,  besides  the  num- 
ber of  one  hundred  Spaniards,  came  to  the  properties 
of  His  Majesty,  Canna,  Rum,  Eigg  and  the  Isle  of 
Elenole,  and  after  they  had  wracked  and  spoiled  the 
said  islands,  they  treasonably  raised  fire,  and  in 
maist  barbarous,  shameful  and  cruel  manner,  burnt 
the  same  island,  with  the  men,  women  and  children 
there,  not  sparing  the  youths  and  infants;  and  at 
the  same  time  past  came  to  the  Castle  of  Ardnamur- 
chan,  besieged  the  same,  and  lay  about  the  said  castle 
three  days,  using  in  the  meantime  all  kinds  of  hos- 
tilities and  force,  both  by  fire  and  sword.  .  .  . 
The  like  barbarous  and  shameful  cruelty  has  seldom 
been  heard  of  among  Christians  in  any  kingdom  or 
age. ' ' 

On  the  20th  of  March,  1588,  King  James  "granted 
a  remission  to  Lachlan  MacLean  of  Duart  for  the 
cruel  murder  of  certain  inhabitants  of  the  islands  of 
Rum,  Canna,  and  Eigg,"  but  from  the  remission  was 
excepted  the  "plotting  or  felonious  burning  and 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  195 

flaming  up,  by  sulphurous  powder,  of  a  Spanish  ship 
and  of  the  men  and  provisions  in  her,  near  the  island 
of  Mull." 

Swift  and  tragic  as  was  the  fate  of  Captain  Pa- 
reira  and  his  ship's  company,  it  was  perhaps  more 
merciful  than  that  which  befell  the  great  squadron 
of  galleons  of  the  Armada  that  were  cast  on  the 
coast  of  Ireland,  on  the  rocks  of  Clare  and  Kerry, 
in  Galway  Bay,  and  along  the  shores  of  Sligo  and 
Donegal.  More  than  thirty  ships  perished  in  this 
way,  and  of  the  eight  thousand  half-drowned 
wretches  who  struggled  ashore  no  more  than  a  hand- 
ful escaped  slaughter  at  the  hands  of  the  wild  Irish 
who  knocked  them  on  the  head  with  battle-axes  or 
stripped  them  naked  and  left  them  to  die  of  the  cold. 
Many  were  Spanish  gentlemen,  richly  clad,  with 
gold  chains  and  rings,  and  the  common  sailors  and 
soldiers  had  each  a  bag  of  ducats  lashed  to  his  wrist 
when  he  landed  through  the  surf.  They  were  slain 
for  their  treasure,  and  on  one  sand  strip  of  Sligo  an 
English  officer  counted  eleven  hundred  bodies. 

In  a  letter  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  Sir  R.  Bingham, 
Governor  of  Ulster,  wrote  of  the  wreckage  of  twelve 
Armada  ships  which  he  knew  of,  "the  men  of  which 
ships  did  all  perish  in  the  sea  save  the  number  of 
eleven  hundred  or  upwards  which  we  put  to  the 
sword ;  amongst  whom  there  were  divers  gentlemen 
of  quality  and  service,  as  captains,  masters  of  ships, 
lieutenants,  ensign  bearers,  other  inferior  officers 
and  young  gentlemen  to  the  number  of  some  fifty. 
.  .  .  which  being  spared  from  the  sword  till 
orders  must  be  had  from  the  Lord  Deputy  how  to 
proceed  against  them,  I  had  special  directions  sent 
me  to  see  them  executed  as  the  rest  were,  only  re- 
serving alive  one  Don  Luis  de  Cordova,  and  a  young 


196         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

gentleman,  his  nephew,  till  your  Highness's  pleasure 
be  known." 

Alas,  Elizabeth  could  not  find  it  in  her  heart  to 
spare  even  these  two  luckless  gentlemen  of  Spain, 
and  one  judges  those  rude  Highlanders  less  harshly 
for  their  bloodthirsty  feuds  at  learning  that  the 
great  Queen  herself  "ordered  their  immediate  ex- 
ecution when  she  received  the  letter,  and  it  was  duly 
carried  out. ' ' 

Froude,  in  his  essay  "The  Defeat  of  the  Armada," 
comes  to  the  defense  of  Elizabeth,  or  at  least  he 
pleads  extenuating  circumstances. 

"Most  pitiful  of  all  was  the  fate  of  those  who  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  English  garrisons  of  Galway 
and  Mayo.  Galleons  had  found  their  way  into  Gal- 
way Bay, — one  of  them  had  reached  Galway  itself, 
— the  crews  half  dead  with  famine  and  offering  a 
cask  of  wine  for  a  cask  of  water.  The  Galway 
townsmen  were  humane,  and  tried  to  feed  and  care 
for  them.  Most  were  too  far  gone  to  be  revived, 
and  died  of  exhaustion.  Some  might  have  re- 
covered, but  recovered  they  would  be  a  danger  to 
the  State.  The  English  in  the  "West  of  Ireland  were 
but  a  handful  in  the  midst  of  a  sullen,  half -conquered 
population.  The  ashes  of  the  Desmond  rebellion 
were  still  smoking,  and  Dr.  Sanders  and  his  Lega- 
tine  Commission  were  fresh  in  immediate  memory. 
The  defeat  of  the  Armada  in  the  Channel  could  only 
have  been  vaguely  heard  of. 

"All  that  the  English  officers  could  have  ac- 
curately known  must  have  been  that  an  enormous 
expedition  had  been  sent  to  England  by  Philip  to 
restore  the  Pope;  and  Spaniards,  they  found,  were 
landing  in  thousands  in  the  midst  of  them  with  arms 
and  money;  distressed  for  the  moment,  but  sure,  if 


Ph* 


< 


in 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  197 

allowed  time  to  get  their  strength  again,  to  set  Con- 
naught  in  a  blaze.  They  had  no  fortresses  to  hold 
so  many  prisoners,  no  means  of  feeding  them,  no 
more  to  spare  to  escort  them  to  Dublin.  They  were 
responsible  to  the  Queen's  Government  for  the 
safety  to  the  country.  The  Spaniards  had  not  come 
on  any  errand  of  mercy  to  her  or  hers.  The  stern 
order  went  out  to  kill  them  all  wherever  they  might 
be  found,  and  two  thousand  or  more  were  shot, 
hanged,  or  put  to  the  sword.  Dreadful!  Yes,  but 
war  itself  is  dreadful,  and  has  its  own  necessities. " 

A  quaint  recital  of  the  fate  of  these  fleeing  gal- 
leons is  to  be  found  in  a  history  published  by  order 
of  Oliver  Cromwell,  with  the  title  of  "Old  England 
Forever,  or  Spanish  Cruelty  Displayed."  One 
chapter  runs  as  follows : 

"Here  followeth  a  particular  Account  of  the  Mis- 
erable Condition  of  the  Spanish  Fleet,  fled  to  the 
North  of  Scotland,  and  scattered,  for  many  Weeks, 
on  the  Sea-Coasts  of  Ireland.  Written  October  19, 
1588. 

"About  the  Beginning  of  August,  the  Fleet  was, 
by  Tempest,  driven  beyond  the  Isles  of  Orkney,  the 
Place  being  above  60  Leagues  North  Latitude  (as  al- 
ready mentioned)  a  very  unaccustomed  climate  for 
the  Young  Gallants  of  Spain,  who  did  never  before 
feel  Storms  on  the  Sea  nor  cold  weather  in  August. 
And  about  those  Northern  Islands  their  Mariners 
and  Soldiers  died  daily  by  Multitudes,  as  by  their 
Bodies  cast  on  land  did  appear.  And  after  twenty 
Days  or  more,  having  passed  their  Time  in  great 
Miseries,  they  being  desirous  to  return  Home  to 
Spain,  sailed  very  far  Southward  into  the  Ocean  to 
recover  Spain. 

"But  the  Almighty,  who  always  avenges  the  Cause 


198  THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

of  his  afflicted  People  who  put  their  Confidence  in 
Him,  and  brings  down  his  Enemies  who  exalt  them- 
selves to  the  Heavens,  order 'd  the  Winds  to  be  vio- 
lently contrarious  to  this  proud  Navy,  that  it  was 
with  Force  dissevered  on  the  High  Seas  to  the  West 
of  Ireland;  and  so  a  great  number  of  them  were 
driven  into  divers  dangerous  Bays,  and  upon  Rocks, 
all  along  the  West  and  North  Parts  of  Ireland,  in 
sundry  Places  distant  above  an  hundred  Miles  asun- 
der, and  there  cast  away,  some  sunk,  some  broken, 
some  run  on  sands,  and  some  were  burned  by  the 
Spaniards  themselves. 

"As  in  the  North  Part  of  Ireland,  towards  Scot- 
land, between  the  two  Rivers  of  Lough-foile  and 
Lough-sivelly,  nine  were  driven  on  Shore,  and  many 
of  them  broke,  and  the  Spaniards  forced  to  come 
to  Land  for  Succor  among  the  Wild  Irish. 

"In  another  Place,  twenty  miles  South  West  from 
thence,  in  a  Bay  called  Borreys,  twenty  Miles  North- 
ward from  Galloway,  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  one  special  great  Ship  of  1000  Tons,  with  50 
Brass  Pieces,  and  four  Cannons  was  sunk,  and  all 
the  People  drowned,  saving  16,  who  by  their  Ap- 
parel, as  it  is  advertized  out  of  Ireland,  seemed  to 
be  Persons  of  Great  Distinction. 

"Then  to  come  more  to  the  Southward,  thirty 
Miles  upon  the  coast  of  Thomond,  North  from  the 
River  of  Shannon,  two  or  three  more  perished, 
whereof  one  was  burned  by  the  Spaniards  them- 
selves, and  so  driven  to  the  Shore.  Another  was  of 
San  Sebastian,  wherein  were  300  men,  who  were 
also  all  drowned,  saving  60;  a  third  Ship,  with  all 
her  Lading  was  cast  away  at  a  Place  called  Breckan. 

"In  another  Place,  opposite  Sir  Tirlogh  O'Brien's 
House,  there  was  another  great  Ship  lost,  supposed 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  199 

to  be  a  Galleass.  The  Losses  above  mentioned  were 
betwixt  the  5th,  and  10th  of  September;  as  was  ad- 
vertized from  sundry  Places  out  of  Ireland.  So  as 
by  accompt.  from  the  21st  of  July,  when  this  Navy 
was  first  beaten  by  the  Navy  of  England,  until  the 
10th  of  September,  being  the  space  of  Seven  Weeks, 
and  more,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  said  Navy  had 
never  had  one  good  Day  or  Night." 

That  much  treasure  of  gold  and  jewels  and  plate 
went  down  in  these  lost  galleons  was  the  opinion  of 
Scotch  and  Irish  tradition,  but  these  stories  gained 
the  greatest  credence  in  the  case  of  the  Florencia  of 
Tobermory  Bay.  She  was  said  to  have  contained 
the  paymaster's  chests  of  the  Armada,  and  to  have 
carried  to  the  bottom  thirty  million  ducats  of  money, 
and  the  church  plate  of  fabulous  richness.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  Florencia  was  one  of  the  largest  gal- 
leons of  the  Armada  and  that  she  never  returned  to 
Spain.  Her  armament  comprised  fifty-two  guns, 
and  her  company  numbered  400  soldiers  and  eighty- 
six  sailors.  It  is  probable  that  this  was  the  Flor- 
encia belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Tuscany,  which  was 
refitting  at  Santander  in  September,  1587,  concern- 
ing which  Lord  Ashley  wrote  to  Walsingham,  after 
the  destruction  of  the  Armada,  that  she  was  com- 
manded by  a  grandee  of  the  first  rank  who  was  al- 
ways "served  on  silver." 

While  even  now  the  most  painstaking  investiga- 
tion is  unable  to  find  definite  information  regarding 
the  amount  of  treasure  lost  in  the  galleon  of  Tober- 
mory Bay,  that  she  contained  a  vast  amount  of  riches 
was  believed  as  early  as  a  half  century  after  her 
destruction.  The  papers  of  the  great  house  of  Ar- 
gyll record  the  beginning-  of  the  search  almost  as 


200         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

far  away  as  1640.  Of  these  fascinating  documents, 
the  first  is  the  grant  to  the  Marquis  of  Argyll  and 
his  heirs  by  the  Duke  of  Lennox  and  Bichmond, 
Lord  High  Admiral,  with  consent  of  King  Charles 
the  First,  of  all  rights  and  ownership  in  the  wreck  of 
the  Florencia  and  her  treasure.  The  deed  of  gift 
is  dated  from  the  Court  of  St.  Theobold's,  February 
5th,  1641  and  ''proceeds  upon  the  narrative  that  in 
the  year  1588,  when  the  great  Spanish  Armada  was 
sent  from  Spain  towards  England  and  Scotland,  and 
was  dispersed  by  the  mercie  of  God,  there  were 
divers  ships  and  other  vessels  of  the  Armada,  with 
ornaments,  munition,  goods,  and  gear,  which  were 
thought  to  be  of  great  worth,  cast  away,  and  sunk 
to  the  sea  ground  on  the  coast  of  Mull,  near  Tober- 
mory, in  the  Scots  seas,  where  they  lay,  and  still  lie 
as  lost ;  and  that  the  Marquis  of  Argyll,  near  whose 
bounds  the  ships  were  lost,  having  taken  notice 
thereof,  and  made  inquiries  therefor,  and  having 
heard  some  doukers  2  and  other  experts  in  such  mat- 
ters state  that  they  consider  it  possible  to  recover 
some  of  the  ships  and  their  valuables,  was  moved  to 
take  and  to  cause  pains  to  be  taken  thereupon  at  his 
own  charges  and  hazard. 

"For  this  reason,  the  Great  Admiral,  with  the 
King's  consent,  gives,  grants,  and  disposes  to  the 
Marquis  the  said  ships,  ornaments,  munition,  etc.  of 
the  Spanish  Armada,  and  the  entire  profit  that  might 
follow,  or  that  he  had  already  obtained  therefrom, 
with  full  power  to  the  Marquis,  his  doukers,  seamen, 
and  others  to  search  for  the  ships,  and  intromit  with 
them,  providing  the  Marquis  were  accountable  and 
made  prompt  payment  to  the  Duke  of  Lennox  and 
Richmond  of  a  hundredth  part  of  the  ships,  etc.  with 

2  Divers. 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  201 

deduction  of  the  expenses  incurred  for  their  recov- 
ery, pro  rata." 

In  these  words  the  Crown  assigned  the  treasure 
of  the  Florencia  to  the  house  of  Argyll  as  part  of  its 
admiralty  rights  along  that  coast  where  marched  the 
family  estates.  In  1665,  the  ninth  Earl  of  Argyll, 
son  of  him  who  had  obtained  ownership  of  the  gal- 
leon, employed  an  expert  diver  and  wrecker  by  the 
name  of  James  Mauld  to  search  for  the  treasure  of 
ducats  and  plate.  It  was  an  attractive  speculation 
for  that  notable  "douker"  who  was  promised  four- 
fifths  of  all  the  "gold,  silver,  metal,  goods,  etc."  re- 
covered and  incidentally  the  Earl  bound  himself 
"that  the  same  James  Mauld  shall  not  be  molested 
in  his  work,  and  that  his  workmen  shall  have  peace- 
able living  in  these  parts  during  their  stay,  and 
traveling  through  the  Highlands  and  Isles,  and  shall 
be  free  from  all  robberies,  thefts,  etc.  so  far  as  the 
said  Earl  can  prevent  the  same.  The  said  contract 
provides  further  lodging  houses  for  the  workmen  at 
the  usual  rates,  and  is  fixed  to  endure  for  three 
years  after  March  1,  1666." 

These  divers  easily  found  the  hull  of  the  galleon, 
and  they  made  a  chart  showing  its  exact  bearings 
by  landmarks  on  two  sides  of  the  bay.  This  ancient 
chart  of  the  "Spanish  wrack"  as  it  is  labeled,  is 
owned  by  the  present  Duke  of  Argyll,  and  has  been 
used  by  the  modern  treasure  seekers  who  are  unable 
even  with  its  aid  to  find  the  remains  of  the  Florencia, 
so  deeply  have  her  timbers  sunk  in  the  tide-swept 
silt  of  the  bay.  The  interest  of  the  ninth  Earl  of 
Argyll  in  exploring  the  galleon  was  diverted  by 
Monmouth's  Eebellion  in  which  luckless  adventure 
he  became  an  active  leader.  He  was  made  prisoner 
and  suffered  the  loss  of  his  head  which  abruptly 


202         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

snuffled  out  his  romantic  activities  as  a  seeker  after 
lost  treasure. 

He  left  among  his  papers  a  memorandum  concern- 
ing the  galleon,  under  date  of  1677,  which  states  that 
"the  Spanish  wrackship  was  reputed  to  have  been 
the  Admiral  of  Florence,  one  of  the  Armada  of  1588, 
a  ship  of  fifty-six  guns,  with  30,000,000  of  money  on 
board.  It  was  burned  and  so  blown  up  that  two 
men  standing  upon  the  cabin  were  cast  safe  on  shore. 
It  lay  in  a  very  good  road,  landlocked  betwixt  a 
little  island  and  a  bay  in  the  Isle  of  Mull,  a  place 
where  vessels  ordinarily  anchored  free  of  any  vio- 
lent tide,  with  hardly  any  stream,  a  clean,  hard  chan- 
nel, with  a  little  sand  on  the  top,  and  little  or  no 
mud  in  most  places  about,  upon  ten  fathoms  at  high 
water  and  about  eight  at  ground  ebb. 

1 '  The  fore  part  of  the  ship  above  water  was  quite 
burned,  so  that  from  the  mizzen  mast  to  the  fore- 
ship,  no  deck  was  left.  The  hull  was  full  of  sand 
and  the  Earl  caused  it  to  be  searched  a  little  without 
finding  anything  but  a  great  deal  of  cannon  ball 
about  the  main  mast,  and  some  kettles,  and  tankers 
of  copper,  and  such  like  in  other  places.  Over  the 
hindship,  where  the  cabin  was,  there  was  a  heap  of 
great  timber  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  remove, 
but  under  this  is  the  main  expectation. 

"The  deck  under  the  cabin  was  thought  to  be  en- 
tire. The  cannon  lay  generally  at  some  yards  dis- 
tance from  the  ship,  from  two  to  twenty.  The 
Earl's  father  had  the  gift  of  the  ship,  and  attempted 
the  recovery  of  it,  but  from  want  of  skilled  workmen 
he  did  not  succeed.  In  1666,  the  Laird  of  Melgum 
(James  Mauld),  who  had  learned  the  art  of  the  (div- 
ing) bell  in  Sweden  and  had  made  a  considerable 
fortune  by  it,  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  Earl 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  203 

for  three  years  by  which  Melgum  was  to  be  at  all  the 
charge,  and  to  give  the  Earl  the  fifth  part  of  what 
was  brought  up.  He  wrought  only  three  months, 
and  most  of  the  time  was  spent  in  mending  his  bells 
and  sending  for  material  he  needed,  so  that  he  raised 
only  two  brass  cannon  of  a  large  calibre,  but  very 
badly  fortified,  and  a  great  iron  gun. 

"After  this,  being  invited  to  England,  he  wrought 
no  more,  thinking  his  trade  a  secret,  and  that  the 
Spanish  ship  would  wait  for  him.  On  the  expiring 
of  the  contract,  the  Earl  undertook  the  work  alone 
and  without  the  aid  of  any  one  who  had  ever  seen 
diving,  recovered  six  cannon,  one  of  which  weighed 
near  six  hundred  weight.  The  Earl  afterwards  en- 
tered into  a  contract  with  a  German  who  undertook 
great  things,  and  talked  of  bringing  a  vessel  of  forty 
guns,  but  instead  brought  only  a  yacht  and  recov- 
ered only  one  anchor,  going  away  soon  after,  taking 
his  gold  with  him  and  leaving  some  debt  behind. 

"The  contract  with  the  German  has  expired,  and 
the  Earl  is  provided  with  a  vessel,  bells,  ropes,  and 
tongs,  and  with  men  to  work  by  direction,  yet,  al- 
though he  is  confident  in  his  own  understanding  of 
the  art  of  diving  with  the  bell,  he  is  willing  to  enter 
into  a  contract.  He  will  dispone  (grant)  the  vessel 
for  three  years,  provided  the  contractor  should  keep 
four  skilled  men  to  work  in  seasonable  weather  from 
May  1  to  October  1.  The  Earl  will  furnish  a  ship 
of  60  or  70  tons  with  twelve  seamen,  and  give  his 
partner  a  fifth  part  of  the  proceeds.  If  a  Crown 
were  found  it  was  to  be  exempted  from  the  division 
and  presented  to  his  Majesty.     .     .     . 

"It  is  concluded  that  if  the  money  expected  be 
fallen  upon,  the  fifth  part  will  quickly  pay  all 
expenses,  and  reward  the  ingenious  artist,  and  if 


204         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

that  fail,  the  cannon  will  certainly  repay  the 
charges." 

There  are  also  preserved  articles  of  agreement, 
dated  December  18th,  1676,  by  which  the  Earl  makes 
over  a  three-year  concession  to  John  Saint  Clare, 
minister  at  Ormistoun  in  Scotland,  "for  himself  and 
as  taking  burden  for  his  father, ' '  to  search  the  wreck 
on  shares,  the  Earl  reserving  "one-third  part  of  what 
should  be  recovered  during  the  first  year,  and  one- 
half  of  what  should  be  recovered  during  the  last  two 
years."  It  is  also  provided  that  "if  the  Saint 
Clares  were  disturbed  during  the  first  year,  so  as 
not  to  be  able  to  work  or  raise  the  wreck  without 
damage  to  their  persons  (by  reason  of  the  unsettled 
state  of  the  country),  the  contract  should  be  re- 
garded as  not  taking  effect  for  a  year.  The  Earl 
binds  himself  to  produce  before  November  1,  1676, 
his  right  to  the  ship,  under  the  Great  Seal  of  Scot- 
land, at  Edinburgh,  and  to  deliver  a  copy  of  it  to 
the  Saint  Clares.  John  Saint  Clare,  younger,  binds 
himself  to  repair  with  all  skill  for  its  recovery,  and 
for  the  recovery  of  the  valuables,  during  the  space 
of  three  years,  and  to  make  true  account  and  pay- 
ment of  the  shares  above  reserved  to  the  Earl  and 
his  heirs,  etc.  Lastly,  both  parties  oblige  themselves 
faithfully  to  observe  all  the  articles  of  agreement 
under  the  liquidated  penalty  of  2,000  marks,  Scots." 

The  Saint  Clares,  or  Sinclairs,  as  the  name  is 
spelled  in  other  documents  of  the  same  tenor,  as- 
signed their  rights  and  contract  to  one  Hans  Al- 
bricht  von  Treibelen,  who  was  probably  that  Ger- 
man referred  to  by  the  Earl  as  taking  his  gold  with 
him  and  leaving  his  debts  behind.  This  document 
contains  a  fascinating  mention  of  "all  that  might  be 
found  in  the  water  and  about  the  ship,  as  gold,  sil- 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  205 

ver,  bullion,  jewels,  etc."  and  sets  forth  a  new 
scheme  of  division  of  the  spoils.  Now  there  appears 
Captain  Adolpho  E.  Smith  as  a  partner  of  Hans  Al- 
bricht  von  Treibelen,  and  one  finds  another  parch- 
ment executed  by  the  Earl  who  appears  to  have 
thought  that  these  "doukers"  would  bear  watching, 
for  they  are  enjoined  " immediately  on  the  recovery 
of  the  wreck  to  deliver  on  the  spot  to  the  Earl's  fac- 
tors or  servants  who  are  daily  to  attend  the  work 
and  to  be  witnesses  of  what  is  recovered.  .  .  . 
Should  the  work  be  impeded  by  the  violence  of  the 
country  people,  it  is  provided  that  the  term  of  the 
contract  might  be  lengthened." 

The  repeated  references  to  molestation  by  the  in- 
habitants round  about  were  aimed  at  the  Clan  Mac- 
Lean.  The  great  Lachlan  M'or  had  long  since 
closed  his  stormy  career,  and,  wrapped  in  his  plaid, 
his  bones  were  smouldering  in  a  grave  by  Duart 
Castle.  His  kinsmen  had  good  memories,  however, 
and  there  was  that  debt  for  provisions  which  had 
been  left  owing  by  Captain  Pareira  of  the  Florencia 
some  eighty  years  before.  It  might  seem  that  young 
Donald  Glas  had  squared  the  account  when  he  blew 
the  galleon  and  her  crew  to  kingdom  come,  but  the 
MacLeans  were  men  to  nurse  the  embers  of  a  feud 
and  set  the  sparks  to  flying  at  the  next  opportunity. 
They  held  it  that  theirs  was  the  first  right  to  the 
wreck,  and  cared  not  a  rap  for  any  documentary 
rights  that  might  have  been  granted  to  the  Camp- 
bells (the  clan  of  the  Earls  of  Argyll),  by  the 
Great  Admiral  of  Scotland. 

Hector  MacLean,  brother  of  Lachlan  MacLean 
of  Castle  Torloisk,  near  Tobermory,  rallied  a  force 
and  drove  the  divers  from  the  wreck.  Then,  in 
order  that  there  might  be  no  doubt  about  the  views 


206         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

of  the  MacLeans,  they  built  a  small  fort  overlooking 
the  bay  and  the  scene  of  the  wreck,  the  ruins  of 
which  still  survive.  There  a  detachment  was  posted 
with  orders  to  make  it  hot  for  any  interlopers  who 
might  try  to  find  the  sunken  treasure  without  first 
consulting  the  MacLeans. 

This  interference  found  its  way  into  the  Courts 
at  Edinburgh  in  the  form  of  a  petition  of  grievances 
suffered  by  Captain  Adolpho  E.  Smith.  He  swore 
before  a  notary  that  John  MacLean,  of  Kinlochalan, 
and  John  MacLean,  a  servitor  to  Lachlan  MacLean 
of  Torloisk,  "had  convocated  six  or  seven  score  of 
armed  men,  and  he  had  exhibited  to  them  a  royal 
warrant  bearing  his  Majesty's  protection  and  free 
liberty  to  Captain  Smith  and  his  servants  to  work  at 
the  wreck-ship  at  Tobermory,  and  prohibiting  any 
of  his  Majesty's  subjects  from  interrupting  them. 
Captain  Smith  then  required  the  MacLeans  to  dis- 
sipate the  armed  men,  part  of  whom  were  in  a  fort 
or  trench  at  Tobermory,  newly  built  by  them  for  in- 
terrupting the  work,  and  the  rest  in  the  place  or 
houses  adjacent, — as  John  MacLean  of  Kinlochalan 
acknowledged, — and  in  his  Majesty's  name  required 
them  to  give  him  and  his  men  liberty  to  prosecute 
their  work  at  the  wreck. 

"Upon  this  Kinlochalan  answered  that  the  men  in 
arms  were  not  commanded  by  him  but  by  Hector 
MacLean,  brother  of  Lachlan  MacLean  of  Torloisk, 
and  others;  and  he  declared  that  not  only  would 
Captain  Smith  and  his  men  be  hindered,  but  that  the 
men  in  arms  would  shoot  guns,  muskets  and  pistols 
at  them,  should  any  of  them  offer  to  duck  or  work 
at  the  wreck.  Whereupon  Captain  Smith  took  this 
instrument,  protesting  against  the  aforesaid  Mac- 
Leans  and  their  accomplices,  at  Tobermory  in  Mull, 


THE  AKMADA  GALLEON  207 

7  September,  1678."  The  militant  and  tenacious 
MacLeans  struck  terror  to  the  heart  of  Captain 
Adolpho  Smith,  according  to  another  official  docu- 
ment called  a  "notorial  instrument  at  the  instance 
of  William  Campbell,  skipper  to  the  Earl  of  Argyll 's 
frigate,  called  Anna  of  Argyll.  This  worthy  sea 
dog,  it  appears,  as  procurator  for  the  Earl,"  had 
compeared,  desired,  and  required  Captain  Adolpho 
E.  Smith  and  his  men  to  duck  and  work  at  the  wreck- 
ship  and  to  conform  to  the  minutes  of  contract  be- 
twixt the  Earl  and  him,  otherwise  to  give  the  bells, 
sinks,  and  other  instruments  necessary  for  ducking 
to  William  Campbell,  and  the  men  on  board  the 
Earl's  frigate,  who  would  duck  them  without  any  re- 
gard to  the  threatenings  of  the  MacLeans. 

"Notwithstanding  this,  Captain  Smith  and  his 
men  refused  to  duck  and  work,  or  to  give  over  the 
bells,  etc.,  necessary  for  the  work  to  William  Camp- 
bell who  thereupon,  as  procurator  for  the  Earl  of 
Argyll  asked  and  took  instruments  and  protested 
against  Captain  Smith  for  cost,  skaith,  and  damage 
conform  to  the  contract.  The  instrument  was  taken 
by  Donald  McKellar,  notary  public,  at  and  aboard 
the  yacht  belonging  to  Captain  Adolpho  E.  Smith, 
lying  in  the  Bay  of  Tobermory  in  Mull,  7  September, 
1678." 

The  wreck  of  the  galleon  was  fought  over  about 
this  time,  not  only  by  the  mettlesome  MacLeans  but 
also  by  the  Duke  of  York  as  Lord  High  Admiral  of 
Scotland  and  the  Isles,  succeeding  in  that  office  the 
Duke  of  Lennox.  He  challenged  the  rights  of  the 
house  of  Argyll  to  the  Florencia  and  her  treasure 
and  instituted  legal  proceedings  in  due  form  which 
were  decided  in  favor  of  the  defendant,  thereby  con- 
firming for  all  time  the  possession  of  the  wreck, 


208         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

which  belongs  to  the  present  Duke  of  Argyll.  The 
verdict  read  in  part  as  follows : 

''The  rights,  reasons,  and  allegations  of  the  par- 
ties, and  the  gifts  and  ratifications  therein  referred 
to,  produced  by  Archibald,  Earl  of  Argyll,  being  at 
length  heard  and  seen,  the  Lords  of  Council  and 
Session  assoilized  the  said  Archibald  Earl  of  Argyll 
from  the  hail  points  and  articles  of  the  summons 
libelled  or  precept  intended  and  pursued  against  him 
at  the  instance  of  said  William  Aikman,  Procurator- 
Fiscal  of  the  Admiralty,  before  said  Lord  High  Ad- 
miral and  his  deputies,  and  decreed  and  declared  him 
quit  and  free  thereof  in  all  time  coming.  Dated 
27th,  July,  1677." 

There  comes  into  the  story,  during  the  lifetime  of 
the  ninth  Earl,  the  figure  of  Sir  William  Sacheverall, 
Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  who  was  interested  as 
a  partner  in  one  of  the  several  concessions  granted. 
He  had  left  an  account  of  his  voyage  to  Mull  in  the 
year  1672,  printed  shortly  after  the  event,  in  which 
he  not  only  records  sundry  efforts  to  fish  up  the 
treasure  but  gives  also  a  lively  and  vivid  picture  of 
the  primitive  Highlander  on  his  native  heather. 

"About  twelve  o'clock,"  he  wrote,  "we  made  the 
Sound  of  Mull.  We  saluted  the  Castle  of  Duart 
with  five  guns,  and  they  returned  three.  I  sent  in 
my  pinnace  for  the  boats,  and  things  you  had  left 
there ;  and  in  the  evening  we  cast  anchor  in  the  Bay 
of  Tauber  Murry,  which  for  its  bigness,  is  one  of  the 
finest  and  fastest  in  the  world.  The  mouth  of  it  is 
almost  shut  up  with  a  little  woody  island  call'd  the 
Calve,  the  opening  to  the  South  not  passable  for 
small  boats  at  low-water,  and  that  to  the  North 
barely  Musquet-shot  over.  To  the  Landward,  it  is 
surrounded  with  high  Mountains  cover 'd  with  woods, 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  209 

pleasantly  intermix 'd  with  rocks,  and  three  or  four 
Cascades  of  water  which  throw  themselves  from  the 
top  of  the  Mountain  with  a  pleasure  that  is  aston- 
ishing, all  of  which  together  make  one  of  the  oddest 
and  most  charming  Prospects  I  ever  saw. 

"Italy  itself,  with  all  the  assistance  of  Art,  can 
hardly  afford  anything  more  beautiful  and  divert- 
ing; especially  when  the  weather  was  clear  and 
serene,  to  see  the  Divers  sinking  three-score  foot 
under  water  and  stay  sometimes  above  an  hour,  and 
at  last  returning  with  the  spoils  of  the  Ocean; 
whether  it  were  Plate,  or  Money,  it  convinced  us  of 
the  Eiches  and  Splendor  of  the  once  thought  Invin- 
cible Armada.  This  rais'd  a  variety  of  Ideas,  in 
a  Soul  as  fond  of  Novelty  as  mine.  Sometimes  I  re- 
flected with  horror  on  the  danger  of  the  British 
Nation,  sometimes  with  Pleasure  on  that  generous 
Courage  and  Conduct  that  sav'd  a  sinking  State; 
and  sometimes  of  so  great  an  Enterprize  baffled 
and  lost,  by  accidents  unthought  of  and  unfor- 
seen.    .    .    . 

"The  first  week  the  weather  was  pleasant,  but 
spent  in  fitting  our  Engines,  which  prov'd  very  well, 
and  every  way  suited  to  the  design ;  and  our  Divers 
outdid  all  examples  of  this  nature.  But  with  the 
Dog-Days  the  autumnal  rains  usually  begin  in  these 
parts,  and  for  six  weeks  we  had  scarce  a  good  day. 
The  whole  frame  of  Nature  seem'd  inhospitable, 
bleak,  stormy,  rainy,  windy,  so  that  our  Divers 
could  not  bear  the  cold,  and  despairing  to  see  any 
amendment  of  weather  I  resolved  on  a  journey 
across  the  Isle  of  Mull,  to  the  so  much  cele- 
brated II-Columb-Kill,3  in  English  St.  Columb's 
Church.     .     .    . 

• Iona. 


210         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"The  first  four  miles  we  saw  but  few  houses,  but 
cross 'd  a  wild  desert  country,  with  a  pleasant  mix- 
ture of  Woods  and  Mountains.  Every  man  and 
thing  I  met  seem'd  a  Novelty.  I  thought  myself  en- 
tering upon  a  new  Scene  of  Nature,  but  Nature 
rough  and  unpolish'd,  in  her  undress.  I  observed 
the  men  to  be  large  bodied,  stout,  subtile,  active, 
patient  of  cold  and  hunger.  There  appeared  in  all 
their  actions  a  certain  generous  air  of  freedom,  and 
contempt  of  those  trifles,  Luxury  and  Ambition, 
which  we  so  servilely  creep  after.  They  bound  their 
appetites  by  their  necessities  and  their  happiness 
consists  not  in  having  much,  but  in  coveting  little. 

' '  The  Women  seem  to  have  the  same  sentiments  as 
the  men;  tho'  their  Habits  were  mean,  and  they 
had  not  our  sort  of  breeding,  yet  in  many  of  them 
there  was  a  natural  Beauty,  and  a  graceful  Modesty 
which  never  fails  of  attracting.  The  usual  outward 
habit  of  both  sexes  is  the  Plaid;  the  women's  much 
finer,  the  colours  more  lively,  and  the  squares  larger 
than  the  men's,  and  put  me  in  mind  of  the  ancient 
Picts.  This  serves  them  for  a  Veil  and  covers  both 
head  and  body.  The  men  wear  theirs  after  another 
manner;  when  design 'd  for  ornament  it  is  loose  and 
flowing,  like  the  mantles  our  painters  give  their 
Heroes. 

"Their  thighs  are  bare,  with  brawny  Muscles;  a 
thin  brogue  on  the  foot,  a  short  buskin  of  various 
colours  on  the  leg,  tied  above  the  calf  with  a  strip  'd 
pair  of  garters.  On  each  side  of  a  large  Shot-pouch 
hangs  a  Pistol  and  a  Dagger;  a  round  Target  on 
their  backs,  a  blue  Bonnet  on  their  heads,  in  one 
hand  a  broadsword,  and  a  musquet  in  the  other. 
Perhaps  no  nation  goes  better  arm'd,  and  I  assure 
you  they  will  handle  them  with  bravery  and  dex- 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  211 

terity,  especially  the  Sword  and  Target,  as  our 
veteran  Regiments  found  to  their  cost  at  Killie 
Crankie." 

Although  Sir  William  Sacheverall,  he  of  the  facile 
pen  and  the  romantic  temper,  brought  no  Spanish 
treasure  to  light,  he  helped  us  to  see  those  fighting 
MacLeans  and  MacDonalds  as  they  were  in  their 
glory,  and  his  description  was  written  almost  two 
and  a  half  centuries  ago. 

The  "Spanish  wrack"  was  handed  down  from  one 
chief  of  the  Campbell  clan  to  another,  as  part  of  the 
estate,  until  in  1740,  John,  the  second  Duke  of  Ar- 
gyll, decided  to  try  his  luck,  and  employed  a  diving 
bell,  by  which  means  a  magnificent  bronze  cannon 
was  recovered.  It  has  since  been  kept  at  Inverary 
Castle,  the  seat  of  the  Dukes  of  Argyll,  as  an  heir- 
loom greatly  esteemed.  This  elaborately  wrought 
piece  of  ordnance,  almost  eleven  feet  in  length,  bears 
the  arms  of  Francis  I  of  France  (for  whom  it  was 
cast  at  Fontainebleau)  and  the  fleur-de-lis.  It  was 
probably  captured  from  Francis  at  the  battle  of 
Pavia  during  his  invasion  of  Italy,  and  the  Spanish 
records  state  that  several  of  such  cannon  were  put 
on  a  vessel  contributed  to  the  Armada  by  the  state 
of  Tuscany.  At  the  same  time  a  large  number  of 
gold  and  silver  coins  were  found  by  the  divers,  and 
the  treasure  seeking  was  thereby  freshly  encour- 
aged. Modern  experts  in  wrecking  and  salvage 
have  agreed  that  the  crude  apparatus  of  those  earlier 
centuries  was  inadequate  to  combat  the  difficulties 
of  exploring  a  wreck  of  the  type  of  the  Florencia 
galleon,  built  as  she  was  of  great  timbers  of  the 
iron-like  African  oak  which  to-day  is  found  to  be 
staunch  and  unrotted  after  a  submersion  of  more 
than  three  hundred  years. 


212         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

The  diving  bells  of  those  times  were  dangerous 
and  clumsy,  and  easily  capsized.  The  men  worked 
from  inside  them  by  thrusting  out  hooks  and  tong- 
like  appliances,  and  dared  venture  no  deeper  than 
eight  fathoms,  or  less  than  fifty  feet.  In  other 
words,  the  treasure  might  be  in  the  galleon,  but  it 
was  impossible  to  find  and  bring  it  up.  For  an- 
other century  and  more,  the  Florencia  was  left  un- 
disturbed until  about  forty  years  ago,  the  present 
Duke  of  Argyll,  then  Marquis  of  Lome,  considered 
it  his  family  duty  to  investigate  the  bottom  of  Tober- 
mory Bay,  his  curiosity  being  pricked  at  finding  the 
ancient  chart,  and  other  documents  already  quoted, 
among  the  archives  stored  in  Inverary  Castle. 
More  for  sport  than  for  profit,  he  sent  down  a  diver 
who  found  a  few  coins,  pieces  of  oak,  and  a  brass 
stanchion,  after  which  the  owner  bothered  his  head 
no  more  about  these  phantom  riches  for  some  time. 

In  1903,  or  three  hundred  and  fifteen  years  after 
the  Florencia  found  her  grave  in  Tobermory  Bay, 
a  number  of  gentlemen  of  Glasgow,  rashly  specula- 
tive for  Scots,  formed  a  company  and  subscribed  a 
good  many  thousand  dollars  to  equip  and  maintain 
a  treasure-seeking  expedition  by  modern  methods. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll,  like  his  ancestors  before  him, 
was  ready  to  grant  permission  to  search  the  wreck 
of  the  galleon  for  a  term  of  years,  conditioned  upon 
a  fair  division  of  the  spoils.  He  let  them  have  the 
chart,  without  which  no  treasure  hunt  deserves  the 
name,  and  all  the  family  papers  dealing  with  the 
Florencia.  In  charge  of  the  operations  was  placed 
Captain  William  Burns  of  Glasgow,  a  hard-headed 
and  vastly  experienced  wrecker  who  had  handled 
many  important  salvage  enterprises  for  the  marine 
underwriters  in  seas  near  and  far. 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  213 

The  contrast  between  this  twentieth  century  syndi- 
cate with  its  steam  dredges  and  electric  lights,  and 
that  primitive  age  when  the  MacLeans  were  harass- 
ing Captain  Adolpho  Smith  from  their  fort  beside 
the  bay,  is  fairly  astonishing.  The  gentlemen  of 
Glasgow  were  not  moved  by  sentiment,  however,  and 
soon  Captain  Burns  was  spending  their  money  in  a 
preliminary  survey  of  the  waters  and  the  sands 
where  the  galleon  was  supposed  to  be.  Although 
the  ancient  chart  was  explicit  in  its  bearings,  and 
these  were  made  when  men  were  living  who  had 
seen  a  part  of  the  wreck  above  tide,  locating  the 
Florencia  proved  to  be  a  baffling  puzzle.  During 
the  first  season,  1903,  divers  and  lighters  were  em- 
ployed in  this  work  of  searching,  but  the  salvage 
consisted  of  no  more  than  another  bronze  cannon 
loaded  with  a  stone  ball,  several  swords?  scabbards, 
and  blunderbusses,  a  gold  ring,  and  some  fifty  doub- 
loons bearing  the  names  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
and  Don  Carlos. 

Two  years  later,  in  1905,  the  work  was  fairly  be- 
gun with  a  costly  equipment.  The  bottom  of  the 
bay  was  photographed  and  a  mound  of  sand  revealed, 
which,  it  was  concluded,  covered  the  surviving  part 
of  the  galleon.  Digging  into  this  bank,  the  divers 
found  many  curious  trophies,  among  them  more 
arms  and  munition,  bottles  or  canteens,  boarding 
pikes,  copper  powder  pans,  and  other  small  furni- 
ture, much  corroded  and  encrusted.  It  was  sur- 
mised that  the  vessel  lay  with  her  stern  cocked  up, 
and  that  in  this  end,  indicated  by  the  swelling  of 
the  sand  bank,  the  treasure  was  hidden. 

Powerful  suction  pumps  worked  by  steam  were 
set  going  to  clear  away  this  bank,  and  they  bored 
into  it  steadily  for  three  weeks  while  the  divers  dug 


214         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

shafts  to  clear  away  obstructions.  At  length,  a 
massive  silver  candlestick  was  fetched  up,  and  the 
sand  pumps  clanked  more  industriously  than  ever. 
At  the  end  of  the  summer,  about  one  hundred  square 
feet  of  the  bank  had  been  removed,  but  the  where- 
abouts of  the  galleon  was  by  no  means  certain. 

As  soon  as  the  weather  became  favorable  in  the 
following  spring,  Captain  Burns  and  his  crew  re- 
turned to  the  quest  with  more  men  and  machinery 
than  before.  It  was  really  impossible  that  such  a 
business  as  this  could  be  carried  on  without  some 
touch  of  the  fantastic  and  the  picturesque.  There 
now  intrudes  a  Mr.  Cossar,  employed  as  "the  famous 
expert,  who,  by  means  of  delicate  apparatus  can 
indicate  where  metal  or  wood  is  buried  in  any  quan- 
tity underground, ' '  and  he  spent  the  summer  taking 
observations  and  buoying  the  bay  with  floats  or  mark- 
ers. At  these  places  boring  was  carried  on  by 
means  of  steel  rods  to  a  depth  of  one  hundred  and 
forty  feet,  while  the  dredges  were  busy  exploring  the 
vicinity  of  the  sand  bank. 

The  area  thoroughly  explored  was  increased  to 
eight  acres  in  1906,  in  water  from  seven  to  fourteen 
fathoms  deep.  That  famous  expert,  Mr.  Cossar,  and 
his  delicate  apparatus  were  reinforced  by  Mr.  John 
Stears  of  Yorkshire,  one  of  the  most  notable  divin- 
ers of  England.  He  operated  with  no  more  appa- 
ratus than  a  hawthorn  twig  and  professed  to  be 
able  to  locate  precious  metals  no  matter  how  many 
fathoms  deep,  and  more  than  this,  mirabile  dictu, 
to  tell  you  whether  it  was  gold,  or  silver,  or  copper, 
that  made  his  inspired  twig  twist  and  bend  in  his 
fingers.  Mr.  Stears  was  taken  as  seriously  as  Mr. 
Cossar  had  been,  and  the  findings  of  one  confirmed 
the  verdicts  of  the  other.    The  powerful  salvage 


Diving  to  find  the  treasure  galleon  in  Tobermory.  Bay. 
(Photographed  in  1909.) 


The  salvage  steamer  Breamer  equipped  with  suction  dredge, 

removing  a  sandbank  from  the  supposed  location 

of  the  Florencia  galleon  in  1909. 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  215 

steamer  Breamer  with  a  large  crew  searched  where 
the  diviner  told  them  to  go,  and  several  pieces  of 
silver  plate  were  recovered  amid  the  excitement  of 
all  hands. 

The  Breamer  continued  work  in  1907,  but  during 
the  next  year  the  waters  of  Tobermory  Bay  were  un- 
vexed  by  the  treasure-seekers.  Then  the  syndicate 
went  into  its  pockets  for  more  cash,  got  its  second 
wind,  so  to  speak,  and  wrapped  its  operations  in  a 
cloud  of  secrecy,  quite  the  proper  dodge  for  a  ven- 
ture of  this  kind.  A  new  and  taciturn  crew  was 
hired  for  the  Breamer,  and  whatever  was  found 
under  water  was  hidden  from  prying  eyes.  The  ad- 
ditional funds  raised  amounted  to  $15,000,  and  Cap- 
tain Burns  was  told  to  obtain  the  best  equipment 
possible.  It  was  reported  in  the  autumn  of  that 
year  that  "Mr.  Cossar,  the  mineral  expert,  by  whose 
skill  the  scope  of  the  operations  was  more  or  less 
controlled,  had  broken  down  in  health  owing  to  the 
severe  strain,  and  had  gone  home  to  recruit,"  but 
John  Stears  of  Yorkshire  with  his  hawthorn  twig 
was  still  finding  treasure  which  refused  to  be  found 
by  divers. 

The  five-year  concession  from  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
had  expired  and  was  renewed  by  a  syndicate  or- 
ganized in  London,  the  manager  a  Col.  K.  M.  Foss, 
an  American,  who  appeared  in  Tobermory  and  con- 
veyed an  impression  of  cock-sure  Yankee  hustle.  He 
announced  that  his  agents  were  making  historical 
researches  in  the  libraries  and  museums  of  Europe 
and  had  already  convinced  him  that  the  lost  galleon 
was  crammed  with  treasure ;  that  the  chart  relied  on 
in  past  searches  was  all  wrong,  and  expressed  his 
surprise  that  the  extensive  salvage  operations  of 
recent  years  should  have  failed  to  locate  the  exact 


216         THE  BOOK  OP  BURIED  TREASURE 

position  of  the  wreck.  In  a  word,  Scotchmen  might 
know  a  thing  or  two,  but  your  up-to-date  Yankee 
was  the  man  to  crack  the  nut  of  the  lost  Florencia 
and  deftly  extract  the  kernel.  The  appearance  of 
this  Colonel  Foss  in  this  storied  landscape  of  Tober- 
mory Bay  has  a  certain  humorous  aspect.  He 
hardly  seems  to  belong  in  the  ensemble  of  the  search 
for  the  treasure  galleon  which  has  been  carried  on 
for  centuries. 

This  entertaining  American  may  perhaps  have  un- 
earthed information  hitherto  unknown,  but  the  fact 
is  worth  some  stress  that  all  previous  investigations 
had  failed  to  prove  beyond  doubt  that  the  Florencia 
bore  from  Spain  the  thirty  millions  of  money  re- 
puted to  have  been  stowed  in  her  lazarette.  An 
ancient  document  known  as  "The  Confession  of 
Gregorie  de  Sotomeya  of  Melgaco  in  Portugal"  con- 
tains a  list  of  the  treasure  ships  of  the  Armada.  He 
was  with  the  fleet  in  the  galleon  Neustra  Senora  del 
Rosario,  commanded  by  Dom  Pedro  de  Valdes,  and 
he  goes  on  to  say: 

"To  the  sixth  question  concerning  what  treasure 
there  was  in  the  fleet,  I  say  there  was  great  stories 
of  money  and  plate  which  came  in  the  galleon  wherein 
the  Duke  of  Medina  was  (The  San  Martin),  and  in 
the  ship  of  Dom  Pedro  de  Valdez  which  was  taken, 
and  in  the  Admiral  of  the  galleons  (The  San  Lo- 
renzo), and  in  the  Galley  Eoyal  (The  Capitana 
Royale),  and  in  the  Vice  Admiral  wherein  was  Juan 
Martinez  de  Eicalde  (The  Santa  Anna),  and  in  the 
Vice  Admiral  whereof  was  General  Diego  (The  San 
Christobel),  and  in  the  Vice  Admiral  of  the  pin- 
naces (N.  S.  de  Pilar  de  Targoza),  and  in  the  Vice- 
Admiral  of  the  hulks  (The  Gran  Grifon),  and  in  a 
Venitian  ship  in  which  came  General  Don  Alonzo  de 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  217 

Leyna.  The  report  goeth  that  this  ship  brought 
great  stores  of  treasure,  for  that  there  came  in  her 
the  Prince  of  Ascoli,  and  many  other  noblemen. 
This  is  all  I  know  touching  the  treasure. ' ' 

The  name  of  the  Florencia  does  not  appear 
herein,  yet  the  report  of  her  vast  riches  was  current 
in  the  Western  Highlands  no  more  than  one  lifetime 
after  the  year  of  the  Armada.  That  men  of  solid 
business  station  and  considerable  capital  can  be 
found  to-day  to  charter  wrecking  steamers,  divers, 
dredges,  and  what  not  to  continue  this  enterprise 
proves  that  romance  is  not  wholly  dead. 

In  the  town  of  Tobermory,  the  busy,  mysterious 
parties  of  treasure  seekers,  as  they  come  year  after 
year  with  their  impressive  flotilla  of  apparatus,  fur- 
nish endless  diversion  and  conjecture.  The  people 
will  tell  you,  in  the  broad  English  of  the  Highlander, 
and  in  the  Gaelic,  even  more  musical,  as  it  survives 
among  the  Western  Islands,  the  legend  of  the  beauti- 
ful Spanish  princess  who  came  in  the  Florencia,  and 
was  wooed  and  won  by  a  bold  MacLean,  and  they 
will  show  you  the  old  mill  whose  timbers,  still 
staunchly  standing,  were  taken  from  the  wreck  of 
the  galleon.  In  Mull,  and  oftener  among  the  islands 
further  seaward  and  toward  the  Irish  coast,  are  to 
be  found  black-eyed  and  black-haired  men  and 
women,  not  of  the  pure  Celtic  race,  in  whose  blood 
is  the  distant  strain  bequeathed  by  those  ancestors 
who  married  shipwrecked  Spanish  sailors  of  the 
Armada,  and  perhaps  among  them  are  descendants 
of  these  two  or  three  seamen  who  were  hurled  ashore 
alive  when  the  Florencia  was  destroyed  by  the  hand 
of  young  Donald  Glas  MacLean. 

In  quaint  Tobermory  whose  main  street  nestles 
along  the  edge  of  the  bay,  the  ancient  foemen,  Mac- 


218         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Leans  and  MacDonalds,  tend  their  shops  side  by 
side,  and  it  seems  as  if  almost  every  other  sign- 
board bore  one  of  these  clan  names.  If  you  would 
hear  the  best  talk  of  the  galleon  and  her  treasure, 
it  is  wise  to  seek  the  tiny  grocery  and  ship  chan- 
dlery of  Captain  Coll  MacDonald,  a  gentle  white- 
bearded  man,  so  slight  of  stature  and  mild  of  mien 
and  speech  that  you  are  surprised  to  learn  that  for 
many  years  he  was  master  of  a  great  white-winged 
clipper  ship  of  the  famous  City  Line  of  Glasgow, 
in  the  days  when  this  distinction  meant  something. 
Now  he  has  come  back  to  spend  his  latter  days  in  this 
tranquil  harbor  and  to  spin  yarns  of  many  seas. 

''The  scour  of  the  tide  has  settled  the  wreck  of 
the  galleon  many  feet  in  the  sand,"  he  told  me.  "I 
can  show  you  on  a  chart  what  the  old  bearings  were, 
as  they  were  handed  down  from  one  generation  to 
the  next,  but  Captain  Burns  is  not  sure  that  he  has 
yet  found  her.  The  money  is  there,  I  have  no  doubt. 
There  was  a  bark  in  the  bay  not  long  ago,  and  when 
she  pulled  up  anchor  a  Spanish  doubloon  was  stick- 
ing to  one  fluke.  Mr.  Stears,  the  Yorkshireman  with 
the  divining  rod,  did  some  wonderful  things,  but  the 
treasure  was  not  found.  To  test  him,  bags  of  sil- 
ver and  gold  and  copper  money  were  buoyed  under 
water  in  the  bay,  with  no  marks  to  show.  It  was 
done  by  night  and  he  was  kept  away.  He  went  out 
in  a  boat  next  morning  and  was  rowed  around  a  bit, 
and  wherever  the  metal  was  hid  under  water,  his 
twig  told  him,  without  a  mistake.  More  than  that, 
he  knew  what  kind  of  metal  it  was  under  the 
water. ' ' 

"And  how  was  that?"  I  asked  of  Captain  Coll 
MacDonald. 

"He  would  hold  a  piece  of  gold  money  in  each 


Scabbards,  flasks,  cannon  balls  and  breech-block  of  a  breech  loading  gun 
from  the  sunken  Armada  galleon. 


Stone  cannon  balls  and  breech-block  of  a  breech  loading  gun 
fished  up  from  the  wreck  of  the  Florencia  galleon. 


THE  ARMADA  GALLEON  219 

hand  when  the  twig  began  to  twist  and  dip.  If  the 
gold  was  under  the  water,  the  twig  would  pull  with 
a  very  strong  pull,  so  that  he  knew.  If  it  was  un- 
decided like,  he  would  hold  silver  money,  and  the 
twig  told  him  the  proper  message.  I  watched  him 
working  many  a  time,  and  it  was  very  wonderful." 

"But  he  did  not  find  the  treasure,"  I  ventured  to 
observe. 

"Ah,  lad,  it  was  no  fault  of  his,"  returned  the  old 
gentleman.  "The  Spanish  gold  is  scattered  far  and 
wide  over  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  I  have  no  doubt. 
Donald  Glas  MaeLean  did  a  very  thorough  job  when 
he  blew  the  galleon  to  hell." 

The  present  Duke  of  Argyll,  brother-in-law  of  the 
late  King  Edward,  bears  among  the  many  and  noble 
and  resonant  titles  that  are  his  by  inheritance,  sev- 
eral which  recall  the  earlier  pages  of  the  history  of 
the  Clan  Campbell,  the  brave  days  of  the  feudal 
Highlands,  and  the  ancient  rights  in  the  Armada 
Galleon  of  Tobermory  Bay.  He  is  Baron  Inverary, 
Mull,  Morvern,  and  Tiry;  twenty-ninth  Baron  of 
Lochow,  with  the  Celtic  title  of  the  Cailean  Mo'r, 
chief  of  the  Clan  Campbell,  from  Sir  Colin  Camp- 
bell, knighted  in  1286;  Admiral  of  the  Western 
Coast  and  Islands,  Marquis  of  Lome  and  Kintye; 
Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  of  Scotland  and  of  the 
Castles  of  Dunstaffnage,  Dunoon  and  Carvick,  He- 
reditary High  Sheriff  of  the  County  of  Argyll. 

He  once  explained  how  the  ownership  of  the 
Florencia  galleon  came  to  his  family  by  means  of 
the  ancient  grant  already  quoted.  The  Campbells 
held  the  admiralty  rights  of  the  coast  of  Mull  at  the 
time  of  the  Armada,  and  any  wreck  was  lawfully 
theirs  for  this  reason.  The  document  was  simply  a 
formal  confirmation  of  these  rights.     The  Florencia 


220         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

was  flotsam  and  jetsam  to  be  taken  by  whatever 
chiefs  held  the  rights  of  admiralty.  A  case  involv- 
ing the  salmon  fishing  rights  of  a  Scottish  river 
was  recently  decided  by  virtue  of  a  charter  of  ad- 
miralty rights  granted  by  Eobert  the  Bruce,  who 
ruled  and  fought  six  hundred  years  ago. 

In  order  to  complete  the  documentary  links  of 
this  true  story  of  the  Armada  galleon,  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  quote  from  a  letter  recently  received  by 
the  author  from  the  present  Duke  of  Argyll,  in 
which  he  says : 

The  galleon  was  the  ship  furnished  by  Tuscany  as  her 
contribution  to  the  Armada.  She  was  called  the  Florencia, 
or  City  of  Florence,  and  was  commanded  by  Captain 
Pereira,  a  Portugese,  and  had  a  crew  largely  Portugese  on 
board.  We  have  found  specimens  of  his  plate  with  the 
Pereira  arms  engraved  on  the  plate  border.  She  carried 
breech  loading  guns  on  her  upper  deck,  and  you  will  see 
one  of  them  at  the  Blue  Coat  School  now  removed  from 
London  to  the  suburbs. 

On  the  lower  deck  were  some  guns  got  from  Francis  I 
at  the  Battle  of  Pavia.  I  have  a  very  fine  one  at  Inverary 
Castle,  got  from  the  wreck  in  1740.  Diving  with  a  diving 
bell  was  commenced  in  1670  and  discontinued  on  account 
of  civil  troubles.  Pereira  foolishly  took  part  in  local  clan 
disputes,  helping  the  MacLeans  of  Mull  against  the  Mac- 
Donalds.  One  of  the  MacDonalds,  when  a  prisoner  on 
hoard,  is  said  to  have  blown  up  the  vessel  as  she  was  warp- 
ing out  of  harbor. 

I  found  an  old  plan  and  located  the  "Spanish  wrack" 
from  the  plan,  but  only  sent  a  man  down  once  from  a 
yacht. 

There  was  little  obtained  during  the  last  divings,  cannon 
balls,  timber,  a  few  pieces  of  plate,  small  articles — about 
70  dollars,  etc.  Yours  faithfully, 

Kensington  Palace,  Argyll. 

April  25—1910.". 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   LOST   PLATE   FLEET   OF   VIGO 

No  treasure  yarn  is  the  real  thing  unless  it  glit- 
ters with  ducats,  ingots,  and  pieces  of  eight,  which 
means  that  in  the  brave  days  when  riches  were 
quickest  won  with  cutlass,  boarding  pike,  and  car- 
ronade,  it  was  Spain  that  furnished  the  best  hunt- 
ing afloat.  For  three  centuries  her  galleons  and 
treasure  fleets  were  harried  and  despoiled  of  wealth 
that  staggers  the  imagination,  and  their  wreckage 
littered  every  ocean.  English  sea  rovers  captured 
many  millions  of  gold  and  silver,  and  pirates  took 
their  fat  shares  in  the  West  Indies,  along  the  coasts 
of  America  from  the  Spanish  Main  to  Lima  and 
Panama,  and  across  the  Pacific  to  Manila.  And  to- 
day, the  quests  of  the  treasure  seekers  are  mostly 
inspired  by  hopes  of  finding  some  of  the  vanished 
wealth  of  Spain  that  was  hidden  or  sunk  in  the  age 
of  the  Conquistadores  and  the  Viceroys. 

Of  all  the  argosies  of  Spain,  the  richest  were  those 
plate  fleets  which  each  year  carried  to  Cadiz  and 
Seville  the  cargoes  of  bullion  from  the  mines  of 
Peru,  and  Mexico,  and  the  greatest  treasure  ever 
lost  since  the  world  began  was  that  which  filled  the 
holds  of  the  fleet  of  galleons  that  sailed  from  Car- 
tagena, Porto  Bello,  and  Vera  Cruz  in  the  year  1702. 
What  distinguishes  this  treasure  story  from  all 
others  is  that  it  is  not  befogged  in  legend  and  con- 
fused   by    mystery    and    uncertainty.    And    while 

221 


222         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ships'  companies  are  roaming  the  Seven  Seas  to 
find  what  small  pickings  the  pirates  and  buccaneers 
may  have  lifted  in  their  time,  the  most  marvelous 
Spanish  treasure  of  them  all  is  no  farther  away  than 
a  harbor  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

At  the  bottom  of  Vigo  Bay,  on  the  coast  of  Spain, 
lies  that  fleet  of  galleons  and  one  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  in  gold  ingots  and  silver  bars.  This  esti- 
mate is  smaller  than  the  documentary  evidence 
vouches  for.  In  fact,  twenty-eight  million  pounds 
sterling  is  the  accepted  amount,  but  one  hundred 
million  dollars  has  a  sufficiently  large  and  impress- 
ive sound,  and  it  is  wise  to  be  conservative  to  the 
verge  of  caution  in  dealing  with  lost  treasure  which 
has  been  made  so  much  more  the  theme  of  fiction 
than  a  question  of  veracity.  After  escaping  the 
perils  of  buccaneer  and  privateer  and  frigate,  this 
treasure  fleet  went  down  in  a  home  port,  amid  smoke 
and  flame  and  the  thunder  of  guns  manned  by  Eng- 
lish and  Dutch  tars  under  that  doughty  admiral  of 
Queen  Anne,  Sir  George  Rooke.  It  was  the  deadli- 
est blow  ever  dealt  the  mighty  commerce  of  Spain 
during  those  centuries  when  her  ruthless  grasp  was 
squeezing  the  New  World  of  its  riches. 

There,  indeed,  is  the  prize  for  the  treasure  seeker 
of  to-day  who  dreams  of  doubloons  and  pieces  of 
eight.  Nor  could  pirate  hoard  have  a  more  blood- 
stained, adventurous  history  than  these  millions 
upon  millions,  lapped  by  the  tides  of  Vigo  Bay,  which 
were  won  by  the  sword  and  lost  in  battle.  During 
these  last  two  hundred  years  many  efforts  have  been 
made  to  recover  the  freightage  of  this  fleet,  but  the 
bulk  of  the  treasure  is  still  untouched,  and  it  awaits 
the  man  with  the  cash  and  the  ingenuity  to  evolve 
the  right  salvage  equipment.    At  work  now  in  Vigo 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO  223 

Bay  is  the  latest  of  these  explorers,  an  Italian,  Pino 
by  name,  inventor  of  a  submarine  boat,  a  system  of 
raising  wreck,  and  a  wonderful  machine  called  a 
hydroscope  for  seeing  and  working  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea. 

With  Pino  it  is  a  business  affair  operated  by 
means  of  a  concession  from  the  Spanish  government, 
but  he  is  something  more  than  an  inventor.  He  is  a 
poet,  he  has  the  artistic  temperament,  and  when  he 
talks  of  his  plans  it  is  in  words  like  these : 

"I  have  found  means  to  disclose  to  human  eyes 
the  things  hidden  in  the  being  of  the  furious  waves 
of  the  infinite  ocean,  and  how  to  recover  them.  Mine 
is  the  simple  key  with  which  to  open  to  man  the 
mysterious  virgin  temples  of  the  nymphs  and  sirens 
who,  by  their  sweet  singing,  draw  men  to  see  and  to 
take  their  endless  treasures." 

This  interesting  Pino  is  no  dreamer,  however,  and 
he  has  enlisted  ample  capital  with  which  to  build 
costly  machinery  and  charter  yachts  and  steamers. 
With  him  is  associated  Carlo  L.  Iberti,  and  there  is 
an  ideal  pattern  of  a  treasure  seeker  for  you,  a  man 
of  immense  enthusiasm,  of  indefatigable  industry, 
dreaming,  thinking,  living  in  the  story  of  the  gal- 
leons of  Vigo  Bay.  It  was  he  who  secured  the  con- 
cession from  Madrid,  it  was  he  who  as  he  says,  "was 
flying  from  province  to  province,  from  country  to 
country,  from  archives  to  archives,  from  library  to 
library,  ever  studying,  copying,  and  acquiring  all 
documents  relating  to  Vigo.  I  had  made  up  my 
mind  to  find  out  all  that  was  to  be  known  about  the 
treasure.    And  I  believe  I  have  succeeded." 

Never  was  there  such  a  prospectus  as  Iberti  wrote 
to  awaken  the  interest  of  investors  in  the  undertak- 
ing of  Pino.    It  was  a  historical  work  bristling  with 


224         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

data,  authorities,  references,  from  French,  Spanish, 
and  English  sources.  It  was  convincing,  final,  posi- 
tively superb.  One  blinked  at  reading  it,  as  if  daz- 
zled by  the  sight  of  mountains  of  gold,  and  moreover 
every  word  of  it  was  true.  As  a  text  for  this  nar- 
rative, his  summary,  the  peroration,  so  to  speak, 
fairly  hits  one  between  the  eyes : 

"As  the  total  quantity  of  treasure  which  arrived 
at  Vigo  in  1702  amounted  to.  126,470,600  pesos,  or 
£27,493,609,  there  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  the 
treasure  in  gold  and  silver  still  lying  in  the  galleons 
of  Vigo  Bay  amounts  to  as  much  as  113,396,085 
pieces  of  eight,  or  £24,651,323,  after  deducting  the 
treasure  unloaded  before  the  battle,  the  booty  taken 
by  the  victors,  and  that  recovered  by  explorers. 
That  would  have  been  the  value  of  the  treasure  two 
hundred  years  ago.  To-day,  its  value  would  be 
greater,  at  a  moderate  estimate  of  £28,000,000. 
Such  is  the  sum  which  we  who  are  interested  in  the 
recovery  of  the  treasure  have  set  our  hearts  on  win- 
ning from  the  sea. ' ' 

After  this,  the  hoards  of  the  most  notorious  and 
hard-working  pirates  seem  picayune,  trifling,  shabby, 
the  small  change  of  the  age  of  buried  treasure.  Why 
Signor  Iberti  is  so  cock-sure  of  his  figures,  and  how 
that  wondrous  treasure  fleet  was  lost  in  Vigo  Bay 
is  a  story  worth  telling  if  there  be  any  merit  in 
high  adventures,  hard  fighting,  and  the  tang  of  salty 
seas  in  the  days  when  the  world  was  young.  No 
more  than  nine  years  after  the  first  voyage  of  Co- 
lumbus, galleons  laden  with  treasure  were  winging 
it  from  the  West  Indies  to  Spain,  and  this  golden 
stream  was  flowing  year  by  year  until  the  time  of 
the  American  Revolution.  The  total  was  to  be 
counted  not  in  millions  but  in  billions,  and  this  pro- 


Sir  George  Rooke,  commanding  the  British  fleet  at  the 
battle  of  Vigo  Bay. 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         225 

digious  looting  of  the  New  World  gave  to  Spain 
such  wealth  and  power  that  her  centuries  of  great- 
ness were  literally  builded  upon  foundations  of  ingots 
and  silver  bars. 

Before  Sir  Francis  Drake  sailed  into  the  Car- 
ibbean, the  Dutch  and  English  had  been  playing  at 
the  great  game  of  galleon  hunting,  but  their  exploits 
had  been  no  more  than  vexations,  and  the  security 
of  the  plate  fleets  was  not  seriously  menaced  until 
"El  Draque"  spread  terror  and  destruction  down 
one  coast  of  the  Americas  and  up  the  other,  from 
Nombre  de  Dios  to  Panama.  Heaven  alone  knows 
how  many  great  galleons  he  shattered  and  plun- 
dered, but  from  the  San  Felipe  and  the  Cacafuego 
he  took  two  million  dollars  in  treasure,  and  he  num- 
bered his  other  prizes  by  the  score.  Martin  Fro- 
bisher  carried  the  huge  East  India  galleon  Madre 
de  Dios  by  boarding  in  the  face  of  tremendous  odds, 
the  blood  running  from  her  scuppers,  and  was  re- 
warded with  $1,250,000  worth  of  precious  stones, 
ebony,  ivory,  and  Turkish  carpets. 

During  the  period  of  the  English  Commonwealth, 
Admiral  Stayner  pounded  to  pieces  a  West  Indian 
treasure  fleet  of  eight  sail,  and  from  one  of  them 
took  two  millions  in  silver,  while  Blake  fought  his 
way  into  the  harbor  of  Teneriffe  and  destroyed  an- 
other splendid  argosy  under  the  guns  of  the  forts. 
It  is  recorded  that  thirty-eight  wagons  were  re- 
quired to  carry  the  gold  and  jewels  thus  obtained 
from  Portsmouth  to  London.  The  records  of  the 
British  Admiralty  have  preserved  a  memorandum 
of  the  prize  money  distributed  to  the  officers  and 
men  of  the  Active  and  Favorite  from  the  treasures 
taken  in  the  Eermione  galleon  off  Cadiz  in  1762,  and 
it  is  a  document  to  make  a  modern  mariner  sigh  for 


226         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  days  of  his  forefathers.     Here  is  treasure  find- 
ing as  it  used  to  nourish: 

The  Admiral  and  the  Commander  of  the  Fleet. .  .$324,815 

The  Captain  of  the  Active 332,265 

Each  of  three  Commissioned  Officers 65,000 

"     "    Eight  Warrant  Officers 21,600 

"     "    Twenty  Officers 9,030 

"     "    150  Seamen  and  Marines 2,425 

The  Captain  of  the  Favorite 324,360 

Each  of  2  Commissioned  Officers 64,870 

"     "    77  Warrant  Officers 30,268 

"     "    15  Petty  Officers 9,000 

"     "    100  Seamen  and  Marines.' 2,420 

In  1702  it  happened  that  no  treasure  fleet  had  re- 
turned to  Spain  for  three  years,  and  the  gold  and 
silver  and  costly  merchandise  were  piling  up  at 
Cartagena  and  Porto  Bello  and  Vera  Cruz  waiting 
for  shipment.  Spain  was  torn  with  strife  over  the 
royal  succession,  and  inasmuch  as  the  king  claimed 
as  his  own  one-fifth  of  all  the  treasure  coming  from 
the  New  World,  the  West  India  Company  and  the 
officials  of  the  treasury  kept  the  galleons  away  until 
it  should  be  known  who  had  the  better  right  to  the 
cargoes.  Moreover,  the  high  seas  were  perilous  for 
the  passage  of  treasure  ships,  what  with  the  havoc 
wrought  by  the  cursed  English  men-of-war  and 
privateers,  not  to  mention  the  buccaneers  of  San 
Domingo  and  the  Windward  Islands  who  had  a 
trick  of  storming  aboard  a  galleon  from  any  crazy 
little  craft  that  would  float  a  handful  of  them. 

Timidly  the  galleons  delayed  until  a  fleet  of 
French  men-of-war  was  sent  out  to  convey  them 
home,  and  at  length  this  richest  argosy  that  ever  fur- 
rowed blue  water,  freighted  with  three  years '  treas- 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         227 

ure  from  the  mines,  made  its  leisurely  way  into  mid- 
ocean  by  way  of  the  Azores,  bound  to  the  home  port 
of  Cadiz.  There  were  forty  sail  in  all,  seventeen 
of  the  plate  fleet,  under  Don  Manuel  de  Velasco, 
and  twenty-three  French  ships-of-the-line  and  frig- 
ates obeying  the  Admiral's  pennant  of  the  Count 
of  Chateaurenaud. 

The  news  came  to  Queen  Anne  that  this  fleet  had 
departed  from  the  Spanish  Main,  and  a  squadron  of 
twenty-seven  British  war  vessels,  commanded  by  the 
famous  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel,  was  fitted  out  to 
intercept  and  attack  it.  The  manoeuvres  of  the 
hunted  galleons  and  their  convoy  wear  an  aspect 
grimly  humorous  as  pictured  in  the  letters  and  nar- 
ratives of  that  time.  One  of  these  explains  that 
''the  fleet  was  performing  its  voyage  always  with 
the  fear  that  the  enemy  was  lying  in  wait  for  it; 
the  King  of  France  also  was  in  continual  anxiety 
on  the  same  account,  and  urged  by  these  forebod- 
ings he  sent  dispatches  in  different  vessels  so  that 
the  fleet  might  avoid  the  threatened  danger.  One 
of  the  dispatch  boats  met  it  on  the  open  sea,  and 
gave  it  notice  of  the  enemy's  armada  being  over 
against  Cadiz,  upon  which  warning  the  commander 
called  a  council  of  war  in  the  ship  Capitana  to  con- 
sider and  fix  upon  the  port  which  they  ought  to 
make  for.  At  this  meeting  various  views  were  ex- 
pressed, for  the  French  held  that  the  fleet  would 
be  more  secure  in  the  ports  of  France,  and  especially 
in  that  of  Eochelle.  Of  the  same  opinion  were  many 
of  the  Spaniards,  who  were  looking  not  to  the  in- 
terests of  individuals,  but  to  the  public  good. 

''And  yet  there  were  also  seen  the  ill-consequences 
that  might  arise  from  the  treasure  not  being  con- 
veyed to  its  proper  destination  and  the  possibility 


228         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

of  the  Most  Christian  King's  finding  some  pretext 
which  would  endanger  its  safety." 

Which  is  to  say  that  if  ''His  Most  Christian 
Majesty,"  Louis  XIV  of  France,  who  was  safe- 
guarding the  treasure,  should  once  entice  it  into  one 
of  his  own  ports,  he  was  likely  to  keep  it  there. 
And  so  the  courteous  Spanish  captains  and  the 
equally  polite  French  captains  eyed  one  another  sus- 
piciously in  the  cabin  of  the  galleon  and  held  council 
until  it  was  decided  to  seek  refuge  in  Vigo  Bay  on 
the  coast  of  Gallicia,  thereby  both  dodging  the  Eng- 
lish and  remaining  at  a  sufficient  distance  from 
France  to  spoil  any  designs  which  might  be 
prompted  by  the  greed  of  "His  Most  Christian  Maj- 
esty. ' ' 

Without  mishap,  the  treasure  fleet  and  the  convoy 
anchored  in  the  sheltered,  narrow  stretch  of  Vigo 
harbor,  and  preparations  for  standing  off  an  Eng- 
lish attack  were  begun  at  once.  The  forts  were 
manned,  the  militia  called  out,  and  a  great  chain 
boom  stretched  across  the  entrance  of  the  inner  road- 
stead. This  was  all  very  well  in  its  way,  but  so  in- 
credible a  comedy  of  blundering,  stupid  delay  ensued 
that  although  for  one  whole  month  the  galleons  lay 
unmolested,  the  treasure  was  not  unloaded  and  car- 
ried to  safety  ashore.  In  a  letter  from  Brussels, 
printed  in  the  London  Postman  of  November  10, 
1702,  the  grave  results  of  this  Spanish  procrastina- 
tion were  indicated  in  these  words : 

"The  last  advices  from  Spain  and  Paris  have 
caused  great  consternation  here.  The  treasure  and 
other  goods  brought  by  the  said  fleet  are  of  such 
consequence  to  Spain,  and  in  particular  to  this 
province,  that  most  of  our  traders  are  ruined  if  this 
fleet  is  taken  and  destroyed." 


The  Royal  Sovereign,  one  of  Admiral  Sir  George  Rooke's 
line-of-battle  ships,  engaged  at  Vigo  Bay. 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         229 

While  the  English  and  their  allies,  the  Dutch,  were 
making  ready  to  take  this  treasure  fleet  bottled  up 
in  Vigo  Bay,  the  officials  of  Spain  were  so  entangled 
in  red  tape  that  there  seemed  to  be  no  way  of  un- 
loading the  galleons.  A  Spanish  writer  of  that  era 
thus  describes  the  lamentable  state  of  affairs: 

' '  The  commerce  of  Cadiz  maintained  that  nothing 
could  be  disembarked  in  Gallicia, — that  to  unload 
the  fleet  was  their  privilege,  and  that  the  ships  ought 
to  be  kept  safe  in  the  harbor  of  Vigo,  without  dis- 
charging their  cargoes,  till  the  enemies  were  gone 
away.  In  addition  to  this,  the  settlement  of  the  mat- 
ter in  the  Council  of  the  Indies  was  not  so  speedy 
as  the  emergency  demanded, — both  through  the 
slowness  and  prudence  natural  to  the  Spaniard,  and 
through  the  diversity  of  opinions  on  the  subject. ' ' 

Don  Modesto  Lafuento,  a  later  Spanish  historian, 
gravely  explains  that  "as  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  at 
this  port  was  unexpected  and  contrary  to  the  usual 
custom,  there  was  no  officer  to  be  found  who  could 
examine  merchandise  for  the  payment  of  duties, 
without  which  no  disembarkation  could  be  lawfully 
made.  When  notice  of  this  was  at  length  sent  to  the 
Court,  much  discussion  arose  there  as  to  who  should 
be  sent.  They  fixed  upon  Don  Juan  de  Larrea,  but 
this  councillor  was  in  no  hurry  about  setting  out  on 
his  journey,  and  spent  a  long  time  in  making  it,  and 
when  he  arrived  he  occupied  himself  with  discusson 
about  the  disposition  of  the  goods  that  had  come  in 
the  fleet.  This  gave  the  opportunity  for  the  Anglo- 
Dutch  fleet,  which  had  notice  of  everything,  to  set 
out  and  arrive  in  the  waters  of  Vigo  before  the  dis- 
embarkation was  effected. ' ' 

Surely  never  was  so  much  treasure  so  foolishly 
endangered,  and  although  a  small  part  of  it  was 


230         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

taken  ashore,  notwithstanding  the  asinine  proceed- 
ings of  the  government  and  Don  Juan  de  Larrea, 
the  English  Post  newspaper  of  November  2,  as- 
serted that  "the  Spaniards,  being  informed  that  the 
enemy's  fleet  was  returned  home,  sent  aboard  a  great 
quantity  of  their  plate  which  they  had  carried  to 
land  for  fear  of  them.  ■ ' 

Admiral  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel  had  missed  finding 
the  treasure  fleet  at  sea,  but  a  lucky  chance  favored 
another  sterling  English  commander,  Sir  George 
Eooke.  He  was  homeward  bound  from  a  disastrous 
attempt  to  take  Cadiz,  in  which  affair  the  Duke  of 
Ormond  had  led  the  troops  engaged.  One  of  his 
ships,  the  Pembroke,  was  detached  from  the  fleet 
and  while  calling  at  Lagos  Bay  for  water,  the  chap- 
lain became  friendly  with  a  gentleman  of  the  port 
who  passed  him  word  that  the  galleons  and  the 
French  fleet  were  safe  at  Vigo.  This  talkative  in- 
formant proved  to  be  a  messenger  from  Lisbon, 
sent  by  the  German  minister  with  dispatches  for  the 
treasure  fleet  which  he  had  first  sought  in  vain  at 
Cadiz. 

The  chaplain  carried  the  rare  tidings  to  Captain 
Hardy  of  the  Pembroke  who  instantly  made  sail  to 
find  Sir  George  Eooke  and  the  English  fleet,  which 
was  jogging  along  toward  England.  The  admiral 
was  "extream  glad,"  says  an  old  account,  and  "im- 
parted the  same  immediately  to  the  Dutch  Admiral, 
declaring  it  his  opinion  that  they  should  go  directly 
to  Vigo."  The  Dutchman  and  his  tars  joyfully 
agreed,  and  Dalrymple,  in  his  memoirs,  relates  that 
"at  the  sound  of  treasure  from  the  South  Seas,  de- 
jection and  animosity  ceased,  and  those  who  a  few 
days  before  would  not  speak  when  they  met,  now 
embraced  and  felicitated  each  other,  etc.    All  the 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         231 

difficulties  that  had  appeared  to  be  mountainous  at 
Cadiz,  dwindled  into  mole-hills  at  Vigo. 

1 '  The  gunners  agreed  that  their  bombs  would  reach 
the  town  and  the  shipping ;  the  engineers,  that  lodg- 
ments and  works  could  easily  be  made ;  the  soldiers, 
that  there  was  no  danger  in  landing;  the  seamen 
that  the  passage  of  the  Narrows  could  easily  be 
forced,  notwithstanding  all  the  defenses  and  obstruc- 
tions; and  the  pilots,  that  the  depth  of  water  was 
everywhere  sufficient,  and  the  anchorage  safe. 
Rooke's  gout  incommoded  him  no  longer;  he  went 
from  ship  to  ship,  even  in  the  night  time,  and  became 
civil, — and  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  with  his  father's 
generosity,  his  brother's  and  his  own,  forgot  all  that 
was  past." 

These  were  the  sentiments  of  men  who  had  no  more 
rations  left  aboard  ship  than  two  biscuits  per  day, 
whose  fleet  was  leaky,  battered,  and  unseaworthy 
after  the  hard  fighting  at  Cadiz,  and  who  were  going 
to  attack  a  powerful  array  of  French  vessels,  pro- 
tected by  numerous  forts  and  obstructions,  and  sup- 
ported by  the  seventeen  galleons  which  in  armament 
and  crews  were  as  formidable  as  men-of-war.  At  a 
council  of  flag  officers  called  by  Sir  George  Rooke, 
it  was  resolved : 

1 '  That,  considering  the  attempting  and  destroying 
these  ships  would  be  of  the  greatest  advantage  and 
honor  to  her  Majesty  and  her  allies,  and  very  much 
tend  to  the  reducing  of  the  power  of  France,  the 
fleet  should  make  the  best  of  its  way  to  the  port  of 
Vigo,  and  insult  them  immediately  with  the  whole 
line  in  case  there  was  room  enough  for  it,  and  if 
not,  by  such  detachment  as  might  render  the  attack 
most  effective.' ' 

In  naval  history  no  swifter  and  more  deadly  ' '  in- 


232         ITHE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

suit"  was  ever  administered  than  that  which  befell 
when  Sir  George  Rooke,  his  gout  forgotten,  ap- 
peared before  Vigo  and  lost  no  time  in  coming  to 
close  quarters.  He  called  a  council  of  the  general 
land  and  sea  officers  who  concluded  that  "in  regard 
the  whole  fleet  could  not  without  being  in  danger 
of  being  in  a  huddle,  attempt  the  ships  and  galleons 
where  they  were,  a  detachment  of  fifteen  English 
and  ten  Dutch  ships  of  the  line  of  battle  with  all  the 
fire  ships  should  be  sent  to  use  their  best  endeavors 
to  take  or  destroy  the  aforesaid  ships  of  the  enemy, 
and  the  frigates  and  bomb  vessels  should  follow  the 
rear  of  the  fleet,  and  the  great  ships  move  after 
them  to  go  in  if  there  should  be  occasion. ' ' 

Next  morning  the  Duke  of  Ormond  landed  two 
thousand  British  infantry  to  take  the  forts  and  de- 
stroy the  landward  end  of  the  boom,  made  of  chain 
cables  and  spars  which  blocked  the  channel.  These 
errands  were  accomplished  with  so  much  spirit  and 
determination  that  the  Grenadiers  fairly  chased  the 
Spanish  garrisons  out  of  their  works.  Eooke  did 
not  wait  for  the  finish  of  this  task,  but  flew  the  signal 
to  get  under  way,  Vice  Admiral  Hopson  leading  in 
the  Torbay.  British  and  Dutch  together,  the  wind 
blowing  half  a  gale  behind  them,  surged  toward  the 
inner  harbor,  stopped  not  for  the  boom  but  cut  a 
way  through  it,  and  became  engaged  with  the  French 
men-of-war  at  close  range.  The  hostile  fleets  were 
so  jammed  together  that  it  was  not  a  battle  of  broad- 
sides. A  Spanish  chronicler  related  that  "they 
fought  with  fires  of  inhuman  contrivance,  hand 
grenades,  fire-balls,  and  lumps  of  burning  pitch. ' ' 

Within  one-half  hour  after  the  English  and  Dutch 
had  gained  entrance  to  the  bay,  its  surface  was  an 
inferno  of  blazing  galleons  and  men-of-war.     Some 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         233 

of  the  French  ships  were  carried  with  the  cutlass 
and  boarding  pike,  but  fire  was  the  chief  weapon 
used  by  both  sides.  The  flaming  vessels  drifted 
against  each  other,  some  of  them  set  purposely  alight 
and  filled  with  explosives.  When  the  galleons  tried 
to  move  further  up  the  bay,  British  troops  on  shore 
raked  them  with  musketry,  and  prevented  the  at- 
tempts to  put  some  of  the  treasure  on  land.  The 
lofty  treasure  ships,  their  huge  citadels  rising  fore 
and  aft,  and  gay  with  carving  and  gilt,  burned  like 
so  much  tinder. 

The  English  had  no  desire  to  destroy  these  golden 
prizes,  and  as  soon  as  the  French  fleet  had  been  an- 
nihilated, every  ship  burned,  sunk,  captured,  or 
driven  ashore,  heroic  efforts  were  made  to  save  the 
galleons  still  unharmed,  "whereupon  Don  Manuel 
de  Velasco,  who  was  not  wanting  in  courage,  but 
only  in  good  fortune,  ordered  them  to  be  set  on 
fire.  .  .  .  The  enemy  saw  the  greater  part  of 
the  treasure  sunk  in  the  sea.  Many  perished  seek- 
ing for  riches  in  the  middle  of  the  flames;  these, 
with  those  who  fell  in  the  battle,  were  800  English 
and  Dutch;  500  were  wounded,  and  one  English 
three-decker  was  burnt.  Nevertheless,  they  took 
thirteen  French  and  Spanish  ships,  seven  of  which 
were  men-of-war,  and  six  merchantmen,  besides 
some  others  much  damaged  and  half-burnt.  There 
fell  2000  Spaniards  and  French,  few  escaped  un- 
wounded. 

"The  day  after  the  bloody  battle,  they  sent  down 
into  the  water  a  great  many  divers,  but  with  little 
result,  for  the  artillery  of  the  city  hindered  them. 
So  setting  to  work  to  embark  their  people,  and  cover- 
ing their  masts  with  flags  and  streamers,  they  cele- 
brated their  victory  with  flutes  and  fifes.     Thus  they 


234         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

steered  for  their  own  ports,  leaving  that  country 
full  of  sadness  and  terror. ' ' 

It  was  a  prodigiously  destructive  naval  engage- 
ment, the  costliest  in  point  of  material  losses  that 
history  records.  The  victors  got  much  booty  to  take 
home  to  England  and  the  Netherlands,  and  were 
handsomely  rewarded  for  their  pains.  Sir  George 
Eooke  carried  to  London  the  galleon  Tauro  which 
had  escaped  burning,  and  she  had  a  mighty  freight 
of  bullion  in  her  hold.  Of  this  ship  the  Post  Boy 
newspaper  made  mention,  January  19, 1703 : 

"There  was  found  in  the  galleon  unloaded  last 
week  abundance  of  wrought  plate,  pieces  of  eight, 
and  other  valuable  commodities,  and  so  much  that 
'tis  computed  the  whole  cargo  is  worth  £200,000." 

All  records  of  that  time  and  event  agree,  however, 
that  the  treasure  saved  by  the  allied  fleet  was  no 
more  than  a  small  part  of  what  was  lost  by  the 
wholesale  destruction  of  the  galleons,  and  chiefly  in- 
teresting to  the  present  day  are  the  most  reliable 
estimates  of  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  that  still 
rests  embedded  in  the  tidal  silt  of  Vigo  Bay.  There 
were  sunk  in  water  too  deep  to  be  explored  by  the 
engineers  of  that  century  eleven  French  men-of-war, 
and  at  least  a  round  dozen  of  treasure  laden  gal- 
leons. The  French  fleet  carried  no  small  amount  of 
gold  and  silver  which  had  been  entrusted  to  the  Ad- 
miral and  his  officers  by  merchants  of  the  "West  In- 
dies. As  for  the  galleons,  the  English  Post  of 
November  13, 1702,  stated: 

1 '  Three  Spanish  officers  belonging  to  the  galleons, 
one  of  whom  was  the  Admiral  of  the  Assogna  ships, 
are  brought  over  who  report  that  the  effects  that 
were  on  board  amounted  to  nine  millions  sterling, 
and  that  the  Spaniards,  for  want  of  mules  to  carry 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         235 

the  plate  into  the  country,  had  broke  the  bulk  of 
very  few  ships  before  the  English  forced  the  boom. ' ' 

The  amount  of  the  treasure  is  greatly  underesti- 
mated in  the  foregoing  assertion,  for  the  annual 
voyage  of  the  plate  fleet  had  carried  to  Spain  an 
average  lading  worth  from  thirty  to  forty  million 
dollars,  and  this  doomed  flota  bore  the  accumulated 
treasure  of  three  years.  Not  more  than  ten  million 
dollars  in  bullion  and  merchandise  could  have  been 
looted  by  the  Dutch  and  English  victors,  according 
to  the  most  reliable  official  records.  Our  enthusias- 
tic friend,  Signor  Don  Carlos  Iberti,  he  who  had 
been  "flying  from  province  to  province,"  in  behalf 
of  the  latest  treasure  company  of  Vigo  Bay,  dug 
deep  into  the  musty  records  of  the  "Account  Books 
of  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  of  the  Colonies,  of  the 
Eoyal  Treasury,  of  the  Commercio  of  Cadiz,  of  the 
Council  of  the  West  Indies,"  and  so  on,  and  can  tell 
you  to  the  last  peso  how  much  gold  and  silver  was 
sent  from  the  mines  of  America  in  the  treasure 
fleets,  and  precisely  the  value  of  the  shipments  en- 
trusted to  the  magnificent  flota  of  1702.  A  score  of 
English  authorities  might  be  quoted  to  confirm  what 
has  been  said  of  the  vastness  of  this  lost  treasure. 
The  event  was  the  sensation  of  the  time  in  Europe, 
and  many  pens  were  busy  chronicling  in  divers 
tongues  the  details  of  the  catastrophe  and  the  re- 
sults thereof.  In  a  letter  from  Madrid  which 
reached  England  a  few  days  after  the  event,  the 
writer  lamented : 

"Yesterday  an  express  arrived  from  Vigo  with 
the  melancholy  news  that  the  English  and  Dutch 
fleets  came  before  that  place  the  22nd  past  and  hav- 
ing made  themselves  masters  of  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  in  less  than  two  hours  took  and  burnt  all  the 


236         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

French  men-of-war  and  galleons  in  the  harbour. 
We  have  much  greater  reason  to  deplore  our  mis- 
fortune in  silence  and  tears  than  to  give  you  a  par- 
ticular account  of  this  unspeakable  loss,  which  will 
hasten  the  utter  ruin  of  this  our  monarchy. 

"The  inhabitants  of  this  place,  not  being  able  to 
re-collect  themselves  from  their  consternation,  have 
shut  up  their  houses  and  shops  for  fear  of  being 
plundered  by  the  common  people  who  exclaim  pub- 
licly against  the  government,  and  particularly 
against  Cardinal  Porto  Carrero  and  others  of  the 
Council,  who  not  being  content  with  the  free  gift 
of  three  millions  offered  to  the  king  out  of  the  gal- 
leons, besides  an  indulto  of  two  millions,  hindered 
the  landing  of  the  plate  at  Vigo  before  the  enemy 
arrived  there.  But  the  Cardinal  laid  the  blame  upon 
the  Consultat  of  Seville,  who,  mistrusting  the 
French,  would  not  suffer  them  to  carry  the  galleons 
to  Brest  or  Port  Lewis,  but  gave  orders  that  they 
should  sail  back  from  Vigo  to  Cadiz  after  the  Eng- 
lish and  Dutch  fleets  were  returned  home.  'Tis  said 
that  only  three  of  the  galleons  put  their  cargo  ashore 
before  the  arrival  of  the  enemy. ' ' 

The  news  was  a  most  bitter  pill  for  His  Christian 
Majesty,  Louis  XIV  of  France,  and  put  him  and  his 
court  "into  a  mighty  consternation."  He  was 
quoted  as  saying  that ' '  there  was  not  one-tenth  part 
of  the  plate  and  merchandise  landed  from  on  board 
the  fleet.  This  is  the  most  facetious  piece  of  news 
that  could  come  to  the  enemies  of  France  and 
Spain. ' ' 

All  the  records  lay  stress  on  the  immense  value  of 
the  treasure  lost,  one  that  "the  Spanish  galleons 
were  coming  from  Mexico  overladen  with  riches,' ■ 
another  that  "vast  wealth  in  gold}  silver,  and  mer- 


fe 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         237 

chandise  was  lost  in  that  terrible  battle  of  Vigo,"  a 
third  that ' '  this  was  the  richest  flota  that  ever  came 
into  Europe. M  It  is  extraordinary  that  most  of  this 
treasure  has  remained  untouched  for  more  than  two 
centuries  at  the  bottom  of  Vigo  Bay.  The  records 
of  the  Spanish  government  contain  almost  complete 
memoranda  of  every  concession  granted  to  search- 
ing parties,  and  of  the  valuables  recovered,  which 
total  to  date  is  no  more  than  a  million  and  a  half 
of  dollars. 

Soon  after  the  battle,  Spain  began  to  fish  for  her 
lost  galleons  and  in  that  same  year  of  1702,  the  of- 
ficial newspaper  of  Madrid  recorded  that  "we  are 
instructed  from  Vigo  that  they  are  proceeding  with 
success  in  the  raising  of  the  precious  burden  belong- 
ing to  the  Capitana,  and  Almiranta  of  the  Flota." 
For  some  reason  or  other,  the  task  was  shortly 
abandoned,  and  the  work  turned  over  to  private  en- 
terprise and  companies  which  were  granted  special 
charters,  the  Crown  demanding  as  much  as  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  of  all  the  treasure  recovered.  During 
the  half  century  following  the  loss  of  the  fleet,  as 
many  as  thirty  of  these  concessions  were  granted, 
but  most  of  them  accomplished  nothing.  The  first 
treasure  hunter  to  achieve  results  worth  mention 
was  a  Frenchman,  Alexandre  Goubert,  who  went  to 
work  in  1728,  and  after  prodigious  exertion  suc- 
ceeded in  dragging  almost  ashore  a  hulk  which 
turned  out  to  be  no  galleon  but  one  of  the  men-of- 
war  of  his  own  country,  at  which  there  was  much 
merriment  in  "perfidious  Albion."  This  disgusted 
M.  Goubert  and  he  was  heard  of  no  more. 

An  Englishman,  William  Evans,  tried  a  diving 
bell  of  his  own  invention  in  the  same  century,  and 
raised  many  plates  of  silver,  but  a  Spanish  con- 


238         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

cessionaire,  jealous  of  this  good  fortune,  persuaded 
his  government  that  it  was  in  bad  taste  to  let  history 
repeat  itself  by  giving  the  English  another  fling  at 
the  treasure.  In  1825,  time  having  softened  these 
poignant  memories,  a  Scotchman  was  permitted  to 
work  in  the  bay,  and  local  tradition  affirms  that  he 
found  much  gold  and  silver,  outwitting  the  officials 
at  Madrid  who  demanded  eighty  per  cent,  of  his 
findings.  The  inspectors  posted  to  keep  watch  of 
his  operations  he  made  comfortably  drunk,  bundled 
them  ashore,  clapped  sail  on  his  brigantine,  and 
vanished  with  his  booty.  Later  a  castle  was  built 
near  Perth  in  Scotland,  and  given  the  name  of  Dol- 
lar House.  Here  the  Scotchman  aforesaid  "  lived 
happily  ever  afterwards"  for  all  that  is  known  to 
the  contrary. 

Through  the  eighteenth  century  French,  English, 
and  Spanish  exploring  parties  were  intriguing,  quar- 
reling, buying  one  another  out,  now  and  then  finding 
some  treasure,  and  locating  the  positions  of  most  of 
the  galleons.  In  1822,  American  treasure  hunters 
invaded  the  bay,  organized  as  the  International 
Submarine  Company,  and  hailing  from  Philadelphia. 
Nothing  worth  mention  was  done  until  these  adven- 
turous gentlemen  after  a  good  deal  of  bickering, 
made  a  fresh  start  under  the  name  of  the  Vigo  Bay 
Treasure  Company.  Their  affairs  dragged  along 
for  a  half  century  or  so,  during  which  they  lifted 
one  galleon  from  the  bottom  but  the  weight  of  mud 
in  her  hull  broke  her  to  small  bits.  A  Spanish  war- 
vessel  watched  the  operations,  by  night  and  day,  the 
government  being  somewhat  sensitive  and  suspicious 
ever  since  the  flight  of  that  Scotchman  and  his  brig- 
antine. 

At  last  the  American  company  was  unable  to  get 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         239 

a  renewal  of  its  long  drawn  out  concession,  and  for 
some  time  the  galleons  were  left  alone.  It  was  in 
1904,  that  Signor  Don  Carlos  Iberti  obtained  the 
"Royal  Decree  of  Concession"  for  the  Pino  Com- 
pany, Limited,  of  Genoa,  and  now  indeed  there  was 
to  be  treasure  seeking  in  earnest. 

"Until  recently  the  search  for  the  treasure  in  the 
Bay  of  Vigo  seemed  only  an  Utopian  mania, ' '  cried 
Iberti.  "Those  who  set  about  the  arduous  enter- 
prise were  taken  for  mad  scientists,  rascals,  or  de- 
ceivers of  innocent  speculators.  But  for  my  part 
I  shall  always  admire  those  bands  of  adventurers 
who  sought  to  recover  this  treasure,  from  the  first 
day  after  the  battle  until  the  present  time. ' ' 

Pino 's  first  invention  was  a  submarine  boat  which 
was  tested  with  brilliant  success  before  putting  it 
into  service  at  Vigo  Bay.  For  the  preliminary  work 
of  treasure  finding,  he  perfected  his  hydroscope,  a 
kind  of  sea  telescope  consisting  of  a  floating  plat- 
form from  which  depend  a  series  of  tubes  ending  in 
a  chamber  equipped  with  electric  lamps,  lenses  and 
reflectors,  like  so  many  gigantic  eyes  through  which 
the  observer  is  able  to  view  the  illuminated  bottom 
of  bay  or  ocean. 

To  lift  the  galleons  bodily  is  Pino's  plan,  and  he 
has  devised  what  he  calls  "elevators"  or  clusters  of 
great  bags  of  waterproofed  canvas  each  capable  of 
raising  forty  tons  in  the  water  when  pumped  full 
of  air.  These  are  placed  in  the  hull  of  the  sunken 
ship  or  attached  outside,  and  when  made  buoyant 
by  means  of  powerful  air  pumps,  exert  a  lifting  force 
easily  comprehended.  In  addition,  this  ingenious 
Italian  engineer,  who  has  made  a  science  of  treas- 
ure seeking,  makes  use  of  metal  arms  capable  of 
embracing  a  rotting,  flimsy  hull,  huge  tongs  which 


240         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

are  operated  by  a  floating  equipment  of  sufficient 
engine  power  to  lift  whatever  is  made  fast  to.  The 
Japanese  government  successfully  employed  his 
submarine  inventions  in  raising  the  Eussian  war 
ships  sunk  at  Port  Arthur. 

Already  one  of  the  Spanish  galleons  has  been 
brought  to  the  surface  of  Vigo  Bay,  but  she  hap- 
pened to  have  been  laden  with  costly  merchandise 
instead  of  plate,  and  her  cargo  was  long  since  ruined 
by  water  and  corrosion.  The  list  of  articles  recov- 
ered during  the  searches  of  recent  years  is  a  fasci- 
nating catalogue  to  show  that  the  story  of  the  lost 
fleet  is  a  true  romance  of  history.  I  quote  Iberti 
who  dwells  with  so  much  joyous  enthusiasm  over 
"the  anchors,  including  that  of  the  Misericordia  of 
Santa  Cruz,  guns  of  different  caliber,  wood  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  thirty  gun  carriages,  wheels,  mortars,  sil- 
ver spoons,  mariner's  compasses,  enormous  cables, 
innumerable  balls  and  bombs,  statuettes  of  inlaid 
gold,  magnificently  engraved  pipe  holders,  Mexican 
porcelain,  tortas,  or  plates  of  silver,  some  weighing 
as  much  as  eighty  pounds;  gold  pieces  stamped  by 
the  Royal  Mint  of  Mexico  and  ingots  from  Peru.,, 

The  latest  of  the  concession  held  by  Pino  and  his 
company  whose  shareholders  have  invested  large 
sums  of  real  money,  is  an  unusual  document  in  that 
bona-fide  treasure  seeking  seems  so  incongruous  an 
industry  in  this  twentieth  century.  It  bears  the  sig- 
nature of  His  Excellency  Don  Jose  Ferrandiz,  Min- 
ister of  the  Eoyal  Navy,  and  was  granted  on  August 
24,  1907,  to  be  in  force  until  1915.  The  wording 
runs  thus : 

"With  this  date,  I  say  to  the  Director  General  of 
the  Mercantile  Marine  as  follows : 

"Most  Excellent  Sir, — Having  taken  into  consid- 


Cannon  of  the  treasure  galleons  recovered  by.  Pino  from  the 
bottom  of  Vino  Bay. 


Hydroscope  invented  by  Pino  for  exploring  the  sea  bottom  and 
successfully  used  in  finding  the  galleons  of  Vigo  Bay. 

(By    permission    of    The    World's    Work,    London.) 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         241 

eration  the  petition  presented  by  the  Italian  subject, 
Don  Carlos  Iberti,  representing  Cav.  Don  Jose  Pino, 
inventor  of  the  hydroscope  apparatus  for  seeing, 
photographing,  and  recovering  objects  sunk  to  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  in  which  petition  he  explains  that 
he  obtained  a  Concession  for  the  term  of  eight  years 
to  exploit  what  there  is  in  the  Bay  of  Vigo  apper- 
taining to  the  galleons  which  came  from  America, 
which  Concession  was  published  in  the  Gaceta  Of- 
ficial of  the  5th  of  January,  1904;  that  he  was  at 
the  Bay  of  Vigo  from  the  month  of  April  until  the 
end  of  the  said  year,  carrying  on  dredging  opera- 
tions; but  unforeseen  difficulties  prevented  them 
from  effecting  a  real  and  direct  exploitation,  so  that 
the  work  accomplished  was  only  preliminary,  as  that 
of  seeing,  examining,  and  studying  the  difficulties  of 
the  submarine  bed,  and  the  conditions  in  which  the 
submerged  galleons  are;  that  having  obtained  all 
these  data  necessary  for  undertaking  the  work  for 
recovery,  in  accord  with  the  Commander  of  the  Ma- 
rine at  Vigo,  and  other  gentlemen  who  constitute  the 
Council  of  Inspection,  they  suspended  the  operations 
in  order  to  study  and  construct  new  apparatus,  more 
powerful  and  more  adapted  to  this  kind  of  opera- 
tion, and  they  returned  to  Italy  with  the  intention 
of  going  again  to  Vigo  as  soon  as  they  had  finished 
the  new  appliances  with  which  to  complete  the  work 
of  recovery ;  that  they  have  already  spent  large  sums 
there,  the  greater  part  of  which  have  gone  to  bene- 
fit the  inhabitants  of  Vigo;  that  in  view  of  all  this 
that  has  been  put  forward  he  prays  for  an  extension 
on  the  same  terms  in  which  the  Concession  was 
granted : 

"Considering,  that  by  granting  him  the  solicited 
extension,  the  State  interests  would  not  be  preju- 


242         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

diced,  on  the  condition  of  its  receiving  20  per  cent, 
of  all  that  is  recovered,  irrespective  of  the  artistic 
and  historic  value  of  the  objects  recovered : 

"His  Majesty  the  King  in  accord  with  what  has 
been  proposed  by  the  Council  of  Ministers,  has 
deigned  to  grant  the  solicited  extension  on  the  same 
conditions  which  were  already  put  in  the  concession, 
which  are: — 

11  First, — The  Concessionaire  shall  utilize  for  all 
manual  labor  which  shall  be  necessary,  the  small 
craft  of  the  locality  and  sailors  of  the  maritime  de- 
partment. 

"  Second, — The  work  once  commenced  shall  be  car- 
ried on  without  interruption  unless  there  shall  be 
justifiable  cause  to  hinder  it. 

1 1  Third, — He  undertakes  to  give  to  the  State  20  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  the  objects  recovered. 
"Fourth, — In  fulfilment  of  what  has  been  estab- 
lished by  Art.  351  of  the  Civil  Code,  if  any  objects 
of  interest  to  science  or  art  or  of  any  historic  value 
should  be  extracted,  they  shall  be  given  to  the  State, 
if  it  requires,  and  the  State  will  pay  the  fair  price, 
which  will  be  fixed  by  experts,  taking  into  account 
the  expenses  of  their  recovery. 

"Which  by  Royal  Decree  I  have  the  pleasure  to 
announce  to  you  for  your  knowledge  and  satisfac- 
tion.    May  God  preserve  you  for  many  years." 

This  long-winded  proclamation  seems  faintly  to 
echo  of  another  and  far  distant  day  "appertaining 
to  the  galleons  which  came  from  America,"  that 
day  on  which  the  news  of  the  catastrophe  was  re- 
ceived in  the  palace  of  Madrid.  Gabriel  de  Savoy, 
the  child  queen,  then  only  fourteen  years  old  and 
wed  to  Philip  V,  heard  the  tidings  of  the  battle  of 
Vigo  Bay,  "on  the  day  and  hour  which  was  fixed 


THE  LOST  PLATE  FLEET  OF  VIGO         243 

upon  for  her  to  go  in  public  to  give  thanks  to  the 
Virgin  of  Atocha  for  the  triumphs  of  the  king,  and 
to  place  in  that  temple  the  banners  captured  from 
the  enemy  in  Italy.  This  wise  lady  lamented  bit- 
terly such  fatal  news,  but  not  wishing  to  discourage 
and  afflict  her  people,  she  put  on  courage,  and  re- 
solving to  go  forth  presented  herself  with  so  serene 
a  countenance  as  to  impose  upon  all,  who  were  as- 
tonished at  her  courage,  and  the  ceremony  was  per- 
formed as  if  nothing  had  happened. ' ' 

Vigo  to-day  is  a  pretty  and  thriving  town  of  30,000 
people,  with  a  large  trade  by  sea,  and  fertile  fields 
stretching  between  bay  and  mountain.  Bound 
about  are  the  ancient  forts  and  castles  which  were 
stormed  and  battered  by  the  grenadiers  of  the  Duke 
of  Ormond  and  the  guns  of  the  British  and  Dutch 
ships  under  Sir  George  Kooke.  Vigo  won  a  melan- 
choly renown  on  that  terrific  day  so  long  ago,  and 
its  blue  waters  have  a  haunting  interest  even  now, 
recalling  the  glory  of  the  age  of  the  galleons  and 
the  wild  romance  of  their  voyaging  from  the  Span- 
ish Main.  Perhaps  the  ingenious  Don  Jose  Pino, 
with  his  modern  machinery,  may  find  the  greatest 
treasure  ever  lost,  certain  as  he  is  that  "in  dim 
green  depths  rot  ingot-laden  ships,  with  gold  doub- 
loons that  from  the  drowned  hand  fell."  At  any 
rate,  there  is  treasure-trove  in  the  very  story  of 
that  fight  in  Vigo  Bay,  in  the  contrast  between  the 
timid,  blundering,  procrastinating  Spanish,  afraid 
to  leave  their  gold  and  silver  in  the  galleons,  yet 
afraid  to  unload  it;  and  the  instant  decision  of  the 
English  admiral  who  cared  not  a  rap  for  the  odds. 
His  business  it  was  to  smash  the  French  fleet  and 
destroy  the  plate  ships,  and  he  went  about  it  like 
the  ready,  indomitable  sea  dog  that  he  was. 


244         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Among  the  English  state  papers  is  the  manuscript 
log-book  of  the  captain  of  the  Torbay,  flag  ship  of 
Vice  Admiral  Hopson  who  led  the  attack.  This  is 
how  a  fighting  seaman  of  the  old  school  disposed  of 
so  momentous  and  severe  a  naval  action  as  that  of 
Vigo  Bay,  as  if  it  were  no  more  than  a  common- 
place item  in  the  day's  work: 

"This  24  hours  little  wind,  the  latter  part  much 
rain  and  dirty  weather.  Yesterday  about  3  in  the 
afternoon  we  anchored  before  Vigo  Town  in  15 
fathoms  water.  This  morning  Vice  Admiral  Hop- 
son  hoisted  the  red  flag  at  our  fore-topmast  head  in 
order  to  go  ahead  of  the  fleet  to  defeat  the  French 
and  Spanish  galleons  which  lay  up  the  river.  About 
noon  we  weighed,  having  sent  our  soldiers  on  there 
to  engage  the  forts  which  opposed  our  coming.  We 
being  come  near,  the  forts  fired  at  us. 

"About  one  o'clock,  coming  across  the  forts 
which  were  on  each  side  the  harbor,  they  fired 
smartly  at  us,  and  we  fired  our  guns  at  both  sides 
of  them  again,  and  went  past  and  broke  the  boom 
which  crossed  the  river  to  hinder  our  passage  so  that 
4  and  5  men-of-war  engaged  us  at  once,  but  soon 
deserted,  firing  and  burnt  their  ships.  They  sent  a 
fireship  which  set  us  on  fire." 

It  was  a  very  simple  business,  to  hear  the  captain 
of  the  Torbay  tell  it,  but  the  golden  empire  of  Spain 
was  shaken  from  Cadiz  to  Panama,  and  gouty, 
dauntless  Sir  George  Rooke  helped  mightily  to 
hasten  the  end  which  was  finally  brought  about  by 
another  admiral,  George  Dewey  by  name,  in  that  Ma- 
nila Bay  whence  the  treasure  galleons  of  the  East 
Indies  flota  had  crossed  the  Pacific  to  add  their 
wealth  to  the  glittering  cargoes  gathered  by  the 
Viceroys  of  Mexico  and  Peru. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   PIRATES'    HOARD   OP   TRINIDAD 

Of  all  the  freebooters'  treasure  for  which  search 
is  still  made  by  means  of  curious  information  hav- 
ing to  do  with  charts  and  other  plausible  records, 
the  most  famous  are  those  buried  on  Cocos  Islands 
in  the  Pacific  and  on  the  rocky  islet  of  Trinidad  in 
the  South  Atlantic.  These  places  are  thousands  of 
miles  apart,  the  former  off  the  coast  of  Costa  Rica, 
the  latter  several  hundred  miles  from  the  nearest 
land  of  Brazil  and  not  to  be  confused  with  the  better 
known  British  colony  of  Trinidad  in  the  Leeward 
Islands  group  of  the  West  Indies. 

Each  of  these  treasures  is  of  immense  value,  to 
be  reckoned  in  millions  of  dollars,  and  their  stories 
are  closely  interwoven  because  the  plunder  came 
from  the  same  source  at  about  the  same  time.  Both 
narratives  are  colored  by  piracy,  bloodshed  and 
mystery,  that  of  Cocos  Island  perhaps  the  more 
luridly  romantic  of  the  two  by  reason  of  an  earlier 
association  with  the  English  buccaneers  of  Dampi- 
er's  crew.  Each  island  has  been  dug  over  and  ran- 
sacked at  frequent  intervals  during  the  last  century, 
and  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  expeditions  will  be 
fitting  out  for  Cocos  or  Trinidad  for  many  years  to 
come. 

The  history  of  these  notable  treasures  is  a  knotty 
skein    to    disentangle.    Athwart    its    picturesque 

245 


246         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

pages  marches  a  numerous  company  of  bold  and  im- 
aginative liars,  every  man  of  them  ready  to  swear 
on  a  stack  of  Bibles  that  his  is  the  only  true,  un- 
varnished version  of  the  events  which  caused  the 
gold  and  jewels  and  plate  to  be  hidden.  However, 
when  all  the  fable  and  fancy  are  winnowed  out,  the 
facts  remaining  are  enough  to  make  any  red-blooded 
adventurer  yearn  to  charter  a  rakish  schooner  and 
muster  a  crew  of  kindred  spirits. 

During  the  last  days  of  Spanish  rule  on  the  west 
coast  of  South  America,  the  wealthiest  city  left 
of  that  vast  domain  won  by  the  Conquistadores  and 
held  by  the  Viceroys,  was  Lima,  the  capital  of  Peru. 
Founded  in  1535  by  Francisco  Pizarro,  it  was  the 
seat  of  the  government  of  South  America  for 
centuries.  The  Viceregal  court  was  maintained  in 
magnificent  state,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Lima  was 
the  most  powerful  prelate  of  the  continent.  Here 
the  religious  orders  and  the  Inquisition  had  their 
centers.  Of  the  almost  incredible  amount  of  gold 
and  silver  taken  from  the  mines  of  the  country, 
much  remained  in  Lima  to  pile  up  fortunes  for  the 
grandees  and  officials,  or  to  be  fashioned  into  massy 
ornaments  for  the  palaces,  residences,  churches,  and 
for  the  great  cathedral  which  still  stands  to  pro- 
claim the  grandeur  that  was  Spain's  in  the  olden 
days. 

When  Bolivar,  the  Liberator,  succeeded  in  driving 
the  Spanish  out  of  Venezuela,  and  in  1819  set  up 
the  free  republic  of  Colombia,  the  ruling  class  of 
Peru  took  alarm  which  increased  to  panic  as  soon 
as  it  was  known  that  the  revolutionary  forces  were 
organizing  to  march  south  and  assault  Lima  itself. 
There  was  a  great  running  to  and  fro  among  the 
wealthy  Spanish  merchants,  the  holders  of  fat  po- 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD      247 

sitions  under  the  Viceroy,  and  the  gilded  idlers  who 
swaggered  and  ruffled  it  on  riches  won  by  the  swords 
of  their  two-fisted  ancestors.  It  was  feared  that 
the  rebels  of  Bolivar  and  San  Martin  would  loot  the 
city,  and  confiscate  the  treasure,  both  public  and 
private,  which  consisted  of  bullion,  plate,  jewels,  and 
coined  gold. 

Precious  property  to  the  value  of  six  million  ster- 
ling was  hurried  into  the  fortress  of  Lima  for  safe 
keeping  and  after  the  capture  of  the  city  by  the 
army  of  liberation,  Lord  Dundonald,  the  English 
Admiral  in  command  of  the  Chilian  fleet  assisting 
the  revolutionists,  offered  to  let  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernor depart  with  two-thirds  of  this  treasure  if  he 
would  surrender  the  remainder  and  give  up  the 
fortifications  without  a  fight.  The  Peruvian  libera- 
tor, San  Martin,  set  these  terms  aside,  however,  and 
allowed  the  Spanish  garrison  to  evacuate  the  place, 
carrying  away  the  six  million  sterling.  This  im- 
mense treasure  was  soon  scattered  far  and  wide,  by 
sea  and  land.  It  was  only  part  of  the  riches  dis- 
persed by  the  conquest  of  San  Martin  and  his  pa- 
triots. The  people  of  Lima,  hoping  to  send  their 
fortunes  safe  home  to  Spain  before  the  plundering 
invaders  should  make  a  clean  sweep,  put  their  valu- 
ables on  board  all  manner  of  sailing  vessels  which 
happened  to  be  in  harbor,  and  a  fugitive  fleet  of 
merchantmen  steered  out  from  the  hostile  coast  of 
Peru,  the  holds  piled  with  gold  and  silver,  the  cabins 
crammed  with  officials  of  the  state  and  church  and 
other  residents  of  rank  and  station.  At  the  same 
time  there  was  sent  to  sea  the  treasure  of  the  great 
cathedral  of  Lima,  all  its  jeweled  chalices,  mon- 
strances, and  vestments,  the  solid  gold  candle-sticks 
and  shrines,  the  vast  store  of  precious  furniture  and 


248         1  "K  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ornaments,  which  had  made  this  one  of  the  richest  re- 
ligious edifices  of  the  world. 

There  had  not  been  so  much  dazzling  booty  afloat 
at  one  time  since  the  galleon  plate  fleets  were  in 
their  heyday  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  In  1820  there  were  no  more  of  those 
great  buccaneers  and  gentlemen  adventurers  who 
had  singed  the  beard  of  the  King  of  Spain  in  the 
wake  of  Francis  Drake.  They  had  sailed  and  fought 
and  plundered  for  glory  as  well  as  gain,  or  for  re- 
venge as  much  as  for  doubloons.  Their  successors 
as  sea  rovers  were  pirates  of  low  degree,  base 
wretches  of  a  sordid  commercialism  who  preyed  on 
honest  merchant  skippers  of  all  flags,  and  had  lit- 
tle taste  for  fighting  at  close  quarters.  The  older 
race  of  sea  rogues  had  been  wolves;  the  pirates  of 
the  early  nineteenth  century  were  jackals. 

Many  a  one  of  these  gentry  got  wind  of  the  fabu- 
lous treasure  that  had  been  sent  afloat  from  Lima, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  much  of  it  failed  to  reach 
Spain.  While  in  some  instances,  these  fleeing  ships 
were  boarded  and  scuttled  by  pirate  craft,  in  others 
the  lust  of  gold  was  too  strong  for  the  seamen  to 
whom  the  rare  cargoes  had  been  entrusted,  and  they 
rose  and  took  the  riches  away  from  their  hapless 
passengers.  It  has  been  believed  by  one  treasure 
seeking  expedition  after  another,  even  to  this  day, 
that  Captain  Thompson  of  the  British  trading  brig, 
Mary  Dear  received  on  board  in  the  harbor  of  Lima 
as  much  as  twelve  million  dollars'  worth  of  gold  and 
silver,  and  that  he  and  his  crew,  after  killing  the 
Spanish  owners,  sailed  north  in  the  Pacific  and 
buried  the  booty  on  Cocos  Island. 

Captain  Thompson  somehow  escaped  and  joined  a 
famous  pirate  of  that  time,  Benito  Bonito,  who  ac- 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD       249 

cumulated  a  large  treasure  which  he  also  buried  on 
Cocos  Island.  The  British  Admiralty  records  show 
that  Bonito  was  overhauled  in  his  turn  by  the  frig- 
ate Espiegle  and  that  rather  than  be  hanged  in 
chains,  he  very  handsomely  blew  out  his  brains  on 
his  own  deck. 

This  same  treasure  of  Lima,  or  part  of  it,  fur- 
nished the  foundation  of  the  story  belonging  to  the 
volcanic  islet  of  Trinidad  in  the  South  Atlantic. 
One  version  of  this  is  that  the  pirates  who  chose 
this  hiding-place  had  been  the  crew  of  a  fast  English 
schooner  in  the  slave  trade.  While  at  sea  they  dis- 
posed of  their  captain  by  the  unpleasant  method  of 
pinning  him  to  the  mainmast  with  a  boarding  pike 
through  his  vitals.  Then  the  black  flag  was  hoisted 
and  with  a  new  skipper  they  stood  to  the  south- 
ward, finding  a  great  amount  of  plunder  in  a  Portu- 
guese ship  which  had  on  board  a  "Jew  diamond 
dealer"  among  other  valuable  items.  After  taking 
an  East  Indiaman,  and  other  tempting  craft,  they 
buried  the  total  proceeds  on  the  desolate,  uninhabited 
island  of  Trinidad,  intending  to  return  for  it  before 
the  end  of  the  cruise. 

Unfortunately,  for  the  successful  pirates,  they  ran 
afoul  of  a  heavily  armed  and  manned  merchant  ves- 
sel which  shot  away  their  rudder,  tumbled  their 
spars  about  their  rascally  ears,  boarded  them  with 
great  spirit  and  determination,  and  clapped  the 
shackles  on  the  twenty  gentlemen  of  fortune  who 
had  survived  the  engagement.  These  were  carried 
into  Havana  and  turned  over  to  the  Spanish  authori- 
ties who  gleefully  hanged  nineteen,  not  twenty,  mark 
you,  for  one  had  to  make  a  marvelous  escape  in 
order  to  hand  down  the  secret  of  the  treasure  to 
posterity.    This  survivor  died  in  bed  in  England  at 


250         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

a  very  great  age,  so  the  story  runs,  and  of  course 
he  had  a  chart  to  set  the  next  generation  to  digging. 

The  earlier  statements  of  this  narrative  may  be 
cast  aside  as  worthless.  The  real,  true  pirate  of 
Trinidad  was  not  in  the  slave  schooner  which 
captured  the  "Jew  diamond  dealer"  of  the  Portu- 
guese ship.  An  odd  confusion  of  facts  caused  the 
mistake.  While  Benito  Bonito  was  harrying  the 
Spanish  shipping  of  the  Pacific  and  burying  his 
treasure  on  Cocos  Island,  there  was  on  the  Atlantic 
a  bloodthirsty  pirate  by  the  name  of  Benito  de 
Soto.  He  was  a  Spaniard  who  sailed  out  of  Buenos 
Aires  in  the  year  1827,  bound  to  Africa  to  smuggle 
a  cargo  of  slaves.  The  crew  was  composed  of 
French,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  desperadoes,  and 
led  by  the  mate  and  De  Soto  they  marooned  the  cap- 
tain and  ran  away  with  the  ship  on  a  pirate  voy- 
age. They  plundered  and  burned  and  slaughtered 
without  mercy,  their  most  nefarious  exploit  being 
the  capture  of  the  British  merchant  ship  Morning 
Star,  bound  from  Ceylon  to  England  in  1828,  and 
carrying  as  passengers  several  army  officers  and 
their  wives  and  twenty-five  invalided  soldiers. 
After  the  most  fiendish  conduct,  De  Soto  and  his 
crew,  drove  the  survivors  into  the  hold  of  the  Morn- 
ing Star,  and  fastened  the  hatches,  leaving  the  ves- 
sel to  founder,  for  they  had  taken  care  to  bore 
numerous  auger  holes  in  her  bottom.  By  a  miracle 
of  good  fortune,  the  prisoners  forced  the  hatches 
and  were  taken  off  next  day  by  a  passing  vessel. 

Benito  de  Soto  met  his  end  as  the  result  of  being 
wrecked  in  his  own  ship  off  the  Spanish  coast.  He 
was  caught  in  Gibraltar  and  hanged  by  the  English 
Governor.  An  army  officer  who  saw  him  turned  off 
related  that  he  was  a  very  proper  figure  of  a  pirate, 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD       251 

1 '  there  was  no  driveling  fears  upon  him, — he  walked 
firmly  at  the  tail  of  the  fatal  cart,  gazing  sometimes 
at  his  coffin,  sometimes  at  the  crucifix  which  he  held 
in  his  hand.  This  he  frequently  pressed  to  his  lips, 
repeated  the  prayers  spoken  in  his  ear  by  the  at- 
tendant clergyman,  and  seemed  regardless  of  every- 
thing but  the  world  to  come.  The  gallows  was 
erected  beside  the  water,  and  fronting  neutral 
ground.  He  mounted  the  cart  as  firmly  as  he  had 
walked  behind  it,  and  held  up  his  face  to  Heaven 
and  the  beating  rain,  calm,  resigned,  but  unshaken; 
and  finding  the  halter  too  high  for  his  neck,  he 
boldly  stepped  upon  his  coffin,  and  placed  his  head 
in  the  noose.  Then  watching  the  first  turn  of  the 
wheels,  he  murmured,  ' farewell,  all,'  and  leaned 
forward  to  facilitate  his  fall  .  .  .  The  black  boy 
was  acquitted  at  Cadiz,  but  the  m^n  who  had  fled 
to  the  Caracas,  as  well  as  those  arrested  after  the 
wreck,  were  convicted,  executed,  their  limbs  severed 
and  hung  on  iron  hooks,  as  a  warning  to  all  other 
pirates." 

This  Benito,  who  died  so  much  better  than  he  had 
lived,  was  not  hanged  at  Havana,  it  will  be  per- 
ceived, and  the  version  of  the  Trinidad  treasure 
story  already  outlined  is  apparently  a  hodgepodge 
of  the  careers  of  Benito  de  Soto,  and  of  Benito  of  Co- 
cos  Island,  with  a  flavor  of  fact  in  so  far  as  it  refers 
to  the  twenty  pirates  who  were  carried  to  Cuba  to 
be  strung  up,  or  garroted.  The  Spanish  archives 
of  that  island  record  that  this  gang  was  executed 
and  that  they  had  been  found  guilty  of  plundering 
ships  sailing  from  Lima  shortly  after  the  city  had 
been  entered  by  the  revolutionists.  Their  associa- 
tion with  the  island  of  Trinidad  is  explained  here- 
with as  it  was  told  to  E.  F.  Knight,  an  Englishman, 


252         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

who  organized  and  commanded  an  expedition  which 
sailed  in  search  of  the  treasure  in  1889. 

There  was  at  that  time  near  Newcastle,  England, 
a  retired  sea  captain  who  had  been  in  command  of 
an  East  Indiaman  engaged  in  the  opium  trade  in 
the  years  1848  to  1850.  ' '  The  China  seas  were  then 
infested  by  pirates,"  said  Mr.  Knight's  informant, 
"so  that  his  vessel  carried  a  few  guns  and  a  larger 
crew  than  is  usual  in  these  days.  He  had  four 
quarter-masters,  one  of  whom  was  a  foreigner.  The 
captain  was  not  sure  of  his  nationality  but  thought 
he  was  a  Finn.  On  board  the  vessel  the  man  went 
under  the  name  of  'The  Pirate'  because  of  a  deep 
scar  across  his  cheek  which  gave  him  a  somewhat 
sinister  appearance.  He  was  a  reserved  man,  bet- 
ter educated  than  the  ordinary  sailor,  and  possess- 
ing a  good  knowledge  of  navigation. 

1 '  The  captain  took  a  liking  to  him,  and  showed  him 
kindness  on  various  occasions.  This  man  was  at- 
tacked by  dysentery  on  the  voyage  from  China  to 
Bombay,  and  by  the  time  the  vessel  reached  port  he 
was  so  ill,  in  spite  of  the  captain's  nursing,  that  he 
had  to  be  taken  to  the  hospital.  He  gradually  sank, 
and  when  he  found  that  he  was  dying  he  told  the 
captain,  who  frequently  visited  him,  that  he  felt 
very  grateful  for  the  kind  treatment  given  him,  and 
that  he  would  prove  his  gratitude  by  revealing  a 
secret  which  might  make  his  captain  one  of  the  rich- 
est men  in  England.  He  then  asked  the  skipper  to 
go  to  his  chest  and  take  out  from  it  a  parcel.  This 
contained  a  piece  of  old  tarpaulin  with  a  plan  of  an 
island  of  Trinidad  upon  it. 

"The  dying  soldier  told  him  that  at  the  spot  in- 
dicated, that  is  at  the  base  of  the  mountain  known 
as   Sugar  Loaf,   there  was   an  immense  treasure 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD      253 

buried,  consisting  principally  of  gold  and  silver 
plate  and  ornaments,  the  plunder  of  Peruvian 
churches  which  certain  pirates  had  concealed  there 
in  the  year  1821.  Much  of  this  plate,  he  said,  came 
from  the  cathedral  of  Lima,  having  been  carried 
away  from  there  during  the  war  of  independence, 
when  the  Spaniards  were  escaping  the  country  and 
that  among  other  riches  were  several  massive  gold 
candle-sticks. 

"He  further  stated  that  he  was  the  only  survivor 
of  the  pirates,  as  all  the  others  had  been  captured 
by  the  Spaniards  and  executed  in  Cuba  some  years 
before,  and  consequently  it  was  probable  that  no 
one  but  himself  knew  the  secret.  He  then  gave  the 
captain  instructions  as  to  the  exact  position  of  the 
treasure  in  the  bay  under  the  Sugar  Loaf,  and  en- 
joined him  to  go  there  and  search  for  it,  as  it  was 
almost  certain  that  it  had  not  been  removed." 

Mr.  Knight,  who  was  a  young  barrister  of  London, 
investigated  this  story  with  much  diligence,  and  dis- 
covered that  the  captain  aforesaid  had  sent  his  son 
to  Trinidad  in  1880  to  try  to  identify  the  marks 
shown  on  the  old  pirate's  tarpaulin  chart.  He 
landed  from  a  sailing  ship,  did  no  digging  for  lack  of 
equipment,  but  reported  that  the  place  tallied  ex- 
actly with  the  description,  although  a  great  land- 
slide of  reddish  earth  had  covered  the  place  where 
the  treasure  was  hid.  This  evidence  was  so  convinc- 
ing that  in  1885  an  expedition  was  organized  among 
several  adventurous  gentlemen  of  South  Shields  who 
chartered  a  bark  of  six  hundred  tons,  the  Aurea,  and 
fitted  her  at  a  large  outlay  with  surf  boats,  picks, 
shovels,  timber,  blasting  powder,  and  other  stores. 
This  party  found  the  island  almost  inaccessible  be- 
cause   of    the    wild,    rock-bound    coast,    the    huge 


254         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

breakers  which  beat  about  it  from  all  sides,  and  the 
lack  of  harbors  and  safe  anchorage.  After  im- 
mense difficulty,  eight  men  were  landed,  with  a 
slender  store  of  provisions  and  a  few  of  the  tools. 
The  dismal  aspect  of  the  island,  the  armies  of  huge 
land  crabs  which  tried  to  devour  them,  the  burning 
heat,  and  the  hard  labor  without  enough  food  or 
water,  soon  disheartened  this  band  of  treasure 
seekers,  and  they  dug  no  more  than  a  small  trench 
before  courage  and  strength  forsook  them.  Signal- 
ing to  their  ships,  they  were  taken  off,  worn  out 
and  ill,  and  thus  ended  the  efforts  of  the  expedi- 
tion. 

In  the  same  year,  an  American  skipper  chartered 
a  French  sailing  vessel  in  Rio  Janeiro,  and  sailed 
for  Trinidad  with  four  Portuguese  sailors  to  do  his 
digging  for  him.  They  were  ashore  several  days, 
but  found  no  treasure,  and  vanished  from  the  story 
after  this  brief  fling  with  the  dice  of  fortune.  Now, 
Knight  was  of  different  stuff  from  these  other  ex- 
plorers. He  was  a  first-class  amateur  seaman  who 
had  sailed  his  yacht  Falcon  to  South  America  in 
1880,  and  was  both  experienced  and  capable  afloat 
and  ashore.  While  bound  from  Montevideo  to  Ba- 
hia  he  had  touched  at  Trinidad,  curious  to  see  this 
remote  islet  so  seldom  visited.  This  was  before  he 
heard  the  buried  treasure  story.  Therefore  when 
he  became  acquainted,  several  years  later,  with  the 
chart  and  information  left  by  the  old  pirate,  he  was 
able  to  verify  the  details  of  his  own  knowledge,  and 
he  roundly  affirmed: 

"In  the  first  place,  his  carefully  prepared  plan 
of  the  island,  the  minute  directions  he  gave  as  to 
the  best  landing,  and  his  description  of  the  features 
of  the  bay  on  whose  shores  the  treasure  was  con- 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD       255 

cealed,  prove  beyond  doubt  to  myself  and  others  who 
know  Trinidad,  that  he,  or  if  not  himself  some  in- 
formant of  his,  had  landed  on  this  so  rarely  visited 
islet ;  and  not  only  landed  but  passed  some  time  on  it, 
and  carefully  surveyed  the  approaches  to  the  bay,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  point  out  the  dangers  and  show  the 
safest  passage  through  the  reefs.  This  information 
could  not  have  been  obtained  from  any  pilot-book. 
The  landing  recommended  by  previous  visitors  is 
at  the  other  side  of  the  island.  This  bay  is  de- 
scribed by  them  as  inaccessible,  and  the  indications 
on  the  Admiralty  chart  are  completely  erroneous. 

"And  beyond  this,  the  quartermaster  must  have 
been  acquainted  with  what  was  taking  place  in  two 
other  distant  portions  of  the  world  during  the  year 
of  his  professed  landing  on  the  desert  island.  He 
knew  of  the  escape  of  pirates  with  the  cathedral 
plate  of  Lima.  He  was  also  aware  that,  shortly 
afterwards,  there  were  hanged  in  Cuba  the  crew  of 
a  vessel  that  had  committed  acts  of  piracy  on  the 
Peruvian  coast. 

"It  is  scarcely  credible  that  an  ordinary  sea- 
man,— even  allowing  that  he  was  superior  in  edu- 
cation to  the  average  of  his  fellows, — could  have 
pieced  these  facts  together  so  ingeniously  into  this 
plausible  story." 

This  argument  has  merit  and  it  was  persuasive 
enough  to  cause  Knight  to  buy  the  staunch  cutter 
Alerte,  muster  a  company  of  gentlemen  volunteers, 
ship  a  crew,  and  up  anchor  from  Southampton  for 
Trinidad. 

There  was  never  a  better  found  treasure  expedi- 
tion than  this  in  the  Alerte.  The  nine  partners, 
each  of  whom  put  up  one  hundred  pounds  toward  the 
expenses,  were  chosen  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 


256         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

eager  applicants.  Articles  of  agreement  provided 
that  one-twentieth  of  the  treasure  recovered  was 
to  be  received  by  each  adventurer  and  he  in  turn 
bound  himself  to  work  hard  and  obey  orders.  In 
the  equipment  was  a  drilling  apparatus  for  boring 
through  earth  and  rock,  an  hydraulic  jack  for  lift- 
ing huge  bowlders,  portable  forge  and  anvil,  iron 
wheel-barrows,  crow-bars,  shovels  and  picks  galore, 
a  water  distilling  plant,  a  rapid  fire  gun,  and  a  full 
complement  of  repeating  rifles  and  revolvers. 

A  few  days  before  the  Alerte  was  ready  to  sail 
from  Southampton  an  elderly  naval  officer  boarded 
the  cutter  and  was  kind  enough  to  inform  Mr. 
Knight  of  another  buried  treasure  which  he  might 
look  for  on  his  route  to  Trinidad.  The  story  had 
been  hidden  for  many  years  among  the  documents 
of  the  Admiralty,  and  as  a  matter  of  government 
record,  it  is,  of  course,  perfectly  authentic.  In  1813, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty  instructed  Sir 
Eichard  Bickerton,  commanding  at  Portsmouth,  to 
send  in  the  first  King's  ship  touching  at  Madeira 
a  seaman  who  had  given  information  concerning  a 
hidden  treasure,  in  order  that  the  truth  of  his  story 
might  be  tested. 

The  Admiralty  order  was  entrusted  to  Captain 
Hercules  Eobinson  of  the  Prometheus  and  in  his 
report  he  states  that  *  *  after  being  introduced  to  the 
foreign  seaman  referred  to  in  the  above  letter,  and 
reading  the  notes  which  had  been  taken  of  his  in- 
formation, he  charged  him  to  tell  no  person  what  he 
knew  or  what  was  his  business,  that  he  was  to  mess 
with  the  captain's  coxswain,  and  that  no  duty  would 
be  required  of  him.  To  this  the  man  replied  that 
that  was  all  he  desired,  that  he  was  willing  to  give 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD       257 

his  time,  and  would  ask  no  remuneration  for  his 
intelligence. ' ' 

While  the  Prometheus  was  anchored  at  Funchal, 
Madeira,  Captain  Robinson  closely  questioned  the 
mysterious  seaman  whose  name  was  Christian 
Cruse.  He  declared  that  he  had  been  in  a  hospital 
ill  of  yellow  fever,  several  years  before,  and  with 
him  was  a  shipmate,  a  Spaniard,  who  died  of  the 
same  malady.  Before  his  death  he  told  Cruse  that 
in  1804  he  had  been  in  a  Spanish  ship,  from  South 
America  to  Cadiz,  with  two  millions  of  silver  in 
chests.  When  nearing  the  coast  of  Spain,  they  were 
signaled  by  a  neutral  vessel  that  England  had  de- 
clared war  and  that  Cadiz  was  blockaded.  Rather 
than  risk  capture  by  the  British  fleet,  and  unwilling 
to  run  all  the  way  back  to  South  America,  the  cap- 
tain resolved  to  try  to  gain  the  nearest  of  the  West 
Indies  and  save  his  treasure. 

Passing  to  the  southward  of  Madeira,  a  cluster 
of  small,  uninhabited  islands,  called  the  Salvages, 
was  sighted.  Thereupon  the  crew  decided  that  it 
was  foolishness  to  continue  the  voyage.  The  cap- 
tain was  accordingly  stabbed  to  death  with  a  dirk, 
and  the  ship  steered  to  an  anchorage.  The  chests 
of  Spanish  dollars  were  landed  in  a  small  bay,  a 
deep  trench  dug  in  the  sand  above  highwater  mark, 
and  the  treasure  snugly  buried,  the  body  of  the 
captain  deposited  in  a  box  on  top  of  it.  The  muti- 
neers then  sought  the  Spanish  Main  where  they  in- 
tended to  burn  their  ship,  buy  a  small  vessel  under 
British  colors,  and  return  to  carry  off  the  two  mil- 
lion dollars. 

Near  Tobago  they  suffered  shipwreck  because  of 
poor  navigation  and  only  two  were  saved.    One  died 


258         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ashore,  and  the  other  was  the  Spanish  seaman  who 
made  the  dying  declaration  to  Christian  Cruse  in  the 
hospital  at  Vera  Cruz. 

Captain  Hercules  Eobinson  was  a  seasoned  officer 
of  His  Majesty's  navy,  used  to  taking  sailors'  yarns 
with  a  grain  of  salt,  but  that  he  was  convinced  of 
the  good  faith  of  Christian  Cruse  and  of  the  truth 
of  the  narrative  is  shown  by  his  interesting  com- 
ments, as  he  wrote  them  down  a  century  ago : 

"May  Cruse  not  have  had  some  interested  object 
in  fabricating  this  story?  Why  did  he  not  tell  it 
before?  Is  not  the  cold-blooded  murder  inconceiv- 
able barbarity,  and  the  burying  the  body  over  the 
treasure  too  dramatic  and  buccaneer-like?  Or 
might  not  the  Spaniard  have  lied  from  love  of  lying 
and  mystifying  his  simple  shipmate,  or  might  he 
not  have  been  raving  ? 

"As  to  the  first  difficulty,  I  have  the  strongest  con- 
viction of  the  honesty  of  Christian  Cruse,  and  I 
think  I  could  hardly  be  grossly  deceived  as  to  his 
character,  and  his  disclaiming  any  reward  unless 
the  discovery  was  made,  went  to  confirm  my  belief 
that  he  was  an  honest  man.  And  then  as  to  his 
withholding  the  information  for  four  or  five  years, 
be  it  remembered  that  the  war  with  Denmark  might 
have  truly  shut  him  out  from  any  intercourse  with 
England.  Next  as  to  the  wantonness  and  indiffer- 
ence with  which  the  murder  was  perpetrated,  I  am 
afraid  there  is  no  great  improbability  in  this.  I 
have  witnessed  a  disregard  of  human  life  in  matters 
of  promotion  in  our  service,  etc.,  which  makes  the 
conduct  of  these  Spaniards  under  vehement  temp- 
tation, and  when  they  could  do  as  they  pleased,  suffi- 
ciently intelligible. 

"But  certainly  the  coffin  over  the  treasure  looked 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD      259 

somewhat  theatrical  and  gave  it  the  air  of  Sadler's 
Wells,  or  a  novel,  rather  than  matter  of  fact.  I  en- 
quired, therefore,  from  Christian  Cruse  why  the 
body  of  the  captain  was  thus  buried,  and  he  replied 
that  he  understood  the  object  was,  that  in  case  any 
person  should  find  the  marks  of  their  proceedings 
and  dig  to  discover  what  they  had  been  about,  they 
might  come  to  the  body  and  go  no  further. ' ' 

After  further  reflection,  Captain  Robinson  con- 
vinced himself  that  the  Spanish  seaman  had  been 
clear-headed  when  he  made  his  confession  to  Cruse, 
and  that  it  would  have  been  beyond  him  deliber- 
ately to  invent  the  statement  as  fiction.  The  Pro- 
metheus was  headed  for  the  Salvages,  and  arriv- 
ing off  the  largest  of  these  islands,  a  bay  was  found 
and  a  level  white  patch  of  beach  above  high  water 
mark  situated  as  had  been  described  to  Christian 
Cruse.  Fifty  sailors  were  sent  ashore  to  dig  with 
shovels  and  boarding  pikes,  making  the  sand  fly  in 
the  hope  of  winning  the  reward  of  a  hundred  dol- 
lars offered  to  the  man  who  found  the  murdered 
captain's  coffin. 

The  search  lasted  only  one  day  because  the  anchor- 
age was  unsafe  and  Captain  Robinson  was  under 
orders  to  return  to  Madeira.  Arriving  there,  other 
orders  recalled  his  ship  to  England  for  emergency 
duty  and  the  treasure  hunt  was  abandoned.  So  far 
as  known,  no  other  attempt  had  been  made  to  find 
the  chests  of  dollars  until  Mr.  Knight  decided  to  act 
on  the  information  and  explore  the  Salvages  in  pass- 
ing. 

Of  this  little  group  of  islands  it  was  decided  by 
the  company  of  the  Alerte  that  the  one  called  the 
Great  Piton  most  closely  answered  the  description 
given  Christian  Cruse  by  the  Spanish  pirate.    A  bay 


260         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

was  found  with  a  strip  of  white  sand  above  high- 
water  mark,  and  Mr.  Knight  and  his  shipmates 
pitched  a  camp  nearby  and  had  the  most  sanguine 
expectations  of  bringing  to  light  the  rude  coffin  of 
the  murdered  captain. 

A  series  of  trenches  was  opened  up  after  a  sys- 
tematic plan,  and  some  crumbling  bones  discovered, 
but  the  ship's  surgeon  refused  to  swear  that  they 
had  belonged  to  a  human  being.  The  trouble  was 
that  the  surface  of  the  place  had  been  considerably 
changed  by  the  action  of  waves  and  weather,  which 
made  the  Admiralty  charts  of  a  century  before  very 
misleading.  The  destination  of  the  Alerte  was 
Trinidad,  after  all,  and  the  visit  to  the  Salvages  was 
only  an  incident,  so  the  search  was  abandoned  after 
four  days.  In  all  probability,  the  treasure  of  the 
Salvages  is  still  in  its  hiding-place,  and  any  adven- 
turous young  gentlemen  seeking  a  field  of  operations 
will  do  well  to  consult  for  themselves  the  documen- 
tary evidence  of  Captain  Hercules  Robinson  and 
Christian  Cruse,  as  filed  among  the  records  of  the 
British  Admiralty  Office. 

Trinidad  is  a  much  more  difficult  island  to  ex- 
plore than  any  of  the  Salvages  group.  In  fact,  this 
forbidding  mass  of  volcanic  rock  is  a  little  bit  of 
inferno.  It  is  sometimes  impossible  to  make  a  land- 
ing through  the  surf  for  weeks  at  a  time,  and  when 
a  boat  makes  the  attempt  in  the  most  favorable 
circumstances,  the  venture  is  a  hazard  of  life  and 
death.  As  a  vivid  summary  of  the  aspect  of  this 
lonely  treasure  island,  I  quote  from  Mr.  Knight,  be- 
cause he  is  the  only  man  who  has  ever  described 
Trinidad  at  first  hand: 

''As  we  neared  it,  the  features  of  this  extraordi- 
nary place  could  gradually  be  distinguished.     The 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD      261 

north  side,  that  which  faced  us,  is  the  most  barren 
and  desolate  portion  of  the  island,  and  appears  to 
be  utterly  inaccessible.  Here  the  mountains  rise 
sheer  from  the  boiling  surf, — fantastically  shaped 
of  volcanic  rock ;  cloven  by  frightful  ravines ;  lower- 
ing in  perpendicular  precipices ;  in  places  overhang- 
ing threateningly,  and,  where  the  mountains  have 
been  shaken  to  pieces  by  the  fires  and  earthquakes 
of  volcanic  action,  huge  landslips  slope  steeply  in 
the  yawning  ravines, — landslips  of  black  and  red 
volcanic  debris,  and  loose  rocks  large  as  houses, 
ready  on  the  slightest  disturbance  to  roll  down, 
crashing,  into  the  abysses  below.  On  the  summit  of 
the  island  there  floats  almost  constantly,  even  on 
the  clearest  day,  a  wreath  of  dense  vapor,  never 
still,  but  rolling  and  twisting  into  strange  shapes  as 
the  wind  eddies  among  the  crags.  And  above  this 
cloud-wreath  rise  mighty  pinnacles  of  coal-black 
rock,  like  the  spires  of  some  gigantic  Gothic  cathedral 
piercing  the  blue  southern  sky.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  convey  in  words  a  just  idea  of  the  mystery 
of  Trinidad.  The  very  coloring  seemed  unearthly, 
in  places  dismal  black,  and  in  others  the  fire-con- 
sumed crags  are  of  strange  metallic  hues,  vermil- 
ion red  and  copper  yellow.  When  one  lands  on  its 
shores,  this  uncanny  impression  is  enhanced.  It 
bears  all  the  appearances  of  being  an  accursed  spot, 
whereupon  no  creatures  can  live,  save  the  hideous 
land-crabs  and  foul  and  cruel  sea  birds." 

An  ideal  place,  this,  for  pirates  to  bury  treasure, 
you  will  agree,  and  good  for  nothing  else  under 
Heaven.  The  South  Atlantic  Directory,  the  ship- 
master's guide,  states  that  "the  surf  is  often  in- 
credibly great,  and  has  been  seen  to  break  over  a 
bluff  which  is  two  hundred  feet  high."     Trinidad 


262         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

was  first  visited  by  Halley,  the  astronomer,  after 
whom  the  famous  comet  was  named,  who  called  there 
in  1700  when  he  was  a  captain  in  the  Royal  Navy. 
Captain  Amos  Delano,  the  Yankee  pioneer  in  the  Far 
Eastern  trade,  made  a  call  in  1803,  prompted  by 
curiosity,  but  as  a  rule  mariners  have  given  the  is- 
land a  wide  berth,  now  and  then  touching  there  when 
in  need  of  water  or  fresh  meat  in  the  shape  of 
turtles. 

At  one  time  the  Portuguese  attempted  to  found  a 
settlement  on  Trinidad,  probably  before  the  forests 
had  been  killed  by  some  kind  of  volcanic  upheaval. 
The  ruins  of  their  stone  huts  are  still  to  be  seen  as 
humble  memorials  of  a  great  race  of  explorers  and 
colonists  in  the  golden  age  of  that  nation. 

With  tremendous  exertion,  the  party  from  the 
Alerte  was  landed  with  its  tools  and  stores,  and 
headquarters  established  close  to  the  ravine  which 
was  believed  to  be  the  hiding-place  of  the  treasure 
as  indicated  by  the  chart  and  information  of  the 
Finn  quartermaster  with  the  scar  across  his  cheek. 
It  was  found  that  there  had  been  no  actual  land- 
slide, but  the  ravine  was  choked  with  large  bowlders 
which  at  various  times  had  fallen  from  the  cliffs 
above.  These  were  packed  together  by  the  red 
earth  silting  and  washing  during  the  rainy  season 
when  the  ravines  were  flooded. 

Along  the  whole  of  the  windward  coast  were 
found  innumerable  fragments  of  wreckage,  spars, 
timbers,  barrels.  From  the  position  of  the  island, 
in  the  belt  of  the  southeast  trade  winds,  many  dere- 
lict vessels  must  have  been  driven  ashore.  Some  of 
this  immense  accumulation  of  stuff  may  have  lain 
there  for  centuries,  or  ever  since  vessels  first 
doubled  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,    Here  and  there 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD       263 

were  the  gaunt  rows  of  ribs  to  show  where  a  ship 
had  been  stranded  bodily,  and  doubtless  much  valu- 
able property  in  silver  and  gold,  in  bars,  ingots,  and 
doubloons,  lies  buried  in  the  shattered  hulks  of  these 
old  Dutch  East  Indiamen,  and  galleons  from  Peru. 

As  particular  landmarks  near  the  ravine,  the 
pirate  had  mentioned  three  cairns  which  he  and  his 
comrades  had  heaped  up.  Sure  enough,  the  previ- 
ous treasure  seekers  of  the  Aurea  expedition  from 
England  had  found  the  three  cairns,  but  foolishly 
demolished  them  on  the  chance  that  gold  might  be 
buried  underneath.  Mr.  Knight  could  find  traces  of 
only  one  of  them,  and  he  discovered  also  a  water- 
jar,  a  broken  wheel-barrow  and  other  tools  to  show 
where  the  others  had  been  digging.  The  crew  of  the 
Alert e  were  confident  that  they  were  at  the  right 
place,  and  they  set  to  work  with  the  most  admirable 
zeal  and  fortitude,  enduring  hardships  cheerfully, 
and  during  the  three  months  of  their  labors  on  Trini- 
dad, removing  earth  and  rock  literally  by  the  thou- 
sands of  tons,  until  the  ravine  was  scooped  out  to 
a  depth  of  from  eight  to  twenty  feet. 

Their  vessel  had  to  anchor  far  off  shore,  and  once 
forsook  them  for  a  fourteen  hundred  mile  voyage  to 
Bahia  to  get  provisions.  These  London  lawyers  and 
other  gentlemen  unused  to  toil  with  the  hands  be- 
came as  tough  and  rough  and  disreputable  to  see 
as  the  pirates  who  had  been  there  aforetime.  In 
costume  of  shirt,  trousers,  and  belt,  they  became 
ragged  and  stained  from  head  to  foot  with  the  soil, 
and  presented  a  uniform,  dirty,  brownish,  yellow  ap- 
pearance like  so  many  Brazilian  convicts.  Their 
surf  boat  was  wrecked  or  upset  at  almost  every  at- 
tempt to  land  or  to  go  off  to  the  Alerte,  and  when 
they  were  not  fishing  one  another  out  of  the  surf, 


264         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

they  were  diving  to  recover  their  submerged  and 
scattered  stores.  Their  leader,  Mr.  Knight,  paid 
them  a  tribute  of  which  they  must  have  been  proud : 

"They  had  toiled  hard  and  had  kept  up  their 
spirits  all  the  while  and  what  is  really  wonderful 
under  circumstances  so  calculated  to  try  the  temper 
and  wear  out  the  patience,  they  had  got  on  exceed- 
ingly well  with  each  other,  and  there  had  been  no 
quarreling  or  ill  feeling  of  any  sort." 

At  length  the  melancholy  verdict  was  agreed  upon 
in  council.  All  the  bright  dreams  of  carrying  home 
a  fortune  for  every  adventurer  were  reluctantly  dis- 
missed. The  men  were  worn  to  the  bone,  and  it  was 
becoming  more  and  more  difficult  to  maintain  com- 
munication with  the  Alerte.  The  prodigious  exca- 
vation was  abandoned,  and  Mr.  Knight  indulged 
himself  in  a  soliloquy  as  he  surveyed  the  "great 
trenches,  the  piled-up  mounds  of  earth,  the  uprooted 
rocks,  with  broken  wheelbarrows  and  blocks,  worn- 
out  tools,  and  other  relics  of  our  three  months 
strewn  over  the  ground ;  and  it  was  sad  to  think  that 
all  the  energy  of  these  men  had  been  spent  in  vain. 
They  well  deserved  to  succeed,  and  all  the  more  so 
because  they  bore  their  disappointment  with  so  much 
pluck  and  cheerfulness. ' ' 

But,  in  truth,  the  expedition  had  not  been  in  vain. 
The  toilers  had  been  paid  in  richer  stuff  than  gold. 
They  had  lived  the  true  romance,  nor  could  a  man  of 
spirit  and  imagination  wish  for  anything  more  to 
his  taste  than  to  be  encamped  on  a  desert  island, 
with  the  surf  shouting  in  his  ears,  the  sea  birds  cry- 
ing, all  hands  up  with  daybreak  to  dig  for  buried 
treasure  whose  bearings  were  found  on  a  tarpaulin 
chart  that  had  belonged  to  a  pirate  with  a  deep  scar 
across  his  cheek.    How  it  would  have  delighted  the 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD      265 

heart  of  Eobert  Louis  Stevenson  to  be  one  of  this 
company  of  the  Alerte  at  Trinidad !  The  gallant  lit- 
tle vessel,  only  sixty-four  feet  long  she  was,  filled 
away  for  the  West  Indies,  homeward  bound,  while 
the  men  aboard  amused  themselves  by  wondering 
how  many  nations  might  have  laid  claim  to  the  treas- 
ure, had  it  been  found; — England  which  hoisted  its 
flag  on  Trinidad  in  1770;  Portugal  because  Portu- 
guese from  Brazil  made  a  settlement  there  in  1750 ; 
Brazil,  because  the  island  lay  off  her  coast;  Spain, 
to  whom  the  treasure  had  belonged,  and  Peru  from 
whose  cathedral  it  was  taken,  and  lastly  the  Roman 
Church. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Knight,  to  whose  fascinating 
narrative,  "The  Cruise  of  the  Alerte,"  I  am  in- 
debted for  the  foregoing  information,  sums  it  up 
like  a  true  soldier  of  fortune : 

"Well,  indeed,  it  was  for  us  that  we  had  not  found 
the  pirates'  gold;  for  we  seemed  happy  enough  as 
we  were,  and  if  possessed  of  this  hoard,  our  lives 
would  of  a  certainty  have  become  a  burden  to  us. 
We  should  be  too  precious  to  be  comfortable.  We 
should  degenerate  into  miserable,  fearsome  hypo- 
chondriacs, careful  of  our  means  of  transit,  dread- 
fully anxious  about  what  we  ate  or  drank,  miserably 
cautious  about  everything.  'Better  far,  no  doubt,' 
exclaimed  these  cheerful  philosophers,  'to  remain 
the  careless,  happy  paupers  that  we  are.' 

1 '  '  Do  you  still  believe  in  the  existence  of  the  treas- 
ure?' is  a  question  that  has  been  often  put  to  me 
since  my  return.  Knowing  all  I  do,  I  have  very  lit- 
tle doubt  that  the  story  of  the  Finn  quartermaster 
is  substantially  true, — that  the  treasures  of  Lima 
were  hidden  on  Trinidad;  but  whether  they  have 
been  taken  away,  or  whether  they  are  still  there  and 


266         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

we  failed  to  find  them  because  we  were  not  in  pos- 
session of  one  link  of  the  directions,  I  am  unable 
to  say." 

In  later  years,  E.  F.  Knight  became  a  war  corre- 
spondent, and  lost  an  arm  in  the  Boer  campaign.  I 
met  him  at  Key  West  during  the  Spanish  war  in 
which  he  represented  The  London  Times  and  found 
him  to  be  a  solid,  well-ballasted  man  who  knew  what 
he  was  about  and  not  at  all  one  to  have  gone  treas- 
ure seeking  without  excellent  reasons.  That  he  was 
adventurous  in  his  unassuming  way  he  proved  by 
landing  on  the  Cuban  coast  near  Havana  in  order  to 
interview  the  Spanish  Captain-General.  A  news- 
paper dispatch  boat  ran  close  in  shore,  the  skipper 
risking  being  blown  out  of  water  by  the  batteries  of 
Morro  Castle,  and  Knight  was  transferred  to  a  tiny 
flat-bottomed  skiff  of  the  tonnage  of  a  bath-tub. 
Equipped  with  a  note-book,  revolver,  water  bottle, 
and  a  small  package  of  sandwiches,  he  said  good-by 
in  his  very  placid  manner,  and  was  seen  to  be  stand- 
ing on  his  head  in  the  surf  a  few  minutes  later.  He 
scrambled  ashore,  probably  recalling  to  mind  a  sim- 
ilar style  of  landing  on  the  coast  of  Trinidad,  and 
vanished  in  the  jungle.  That  he  ran  grave  danger 
of  being  potted  for  an  Americano  by  the  first  Span- 
ish patrol  he  encountered  appeared  to  give  him  no 
concern  whatever.  It  was  easy  to  perceive  that  he 
must  have  been  the  right  kind  of  man  to  lead  a  treas- 
ure-hunting expedition. 

Since  the  Alerte  sailed  on  her  dashing  quest  in 
1889,  the  pirates'  gold  of  Trinidad  has  figured  in  an 
adventure  even  more  fantastic.  Many  readers  will 
doubtless  remember  the  career  of  the  late  Baron 
James  Harden-Hickey  who  attempted  to  establish  a 
kingdom  of  his  own  on  the  islet  of  Trinidad.     He  be- 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD      267 

longed  in  another  age  than  this  and  he  was  laughed 
at  rather  more  than  he  deserved.  Duelist,  editor, 
boulevardier,  fond  of  the  tinsel  and  trappings  of 
life,  he  married  the  daughter  of  John  H.  Flagler  of 
the  Standard  Oil  Company  and  with  funds  from  this 
excessively  commercial  source  created  a  throne,  a 
court,  and  a  kingdom.  He  had  seen  the  island  of 
Trinidad  from  a  British  merchant  ship  in  which  he 
went  round  the  Horn  in  1888,  and  the  fact  that  this 
was  a  derelict  bit  of  real  estate,  to  which  no  nation 
thought  it  worth  while  to  lay  formal  claim,  appealed 
to  his  active  imagination. 

A  would-be  king  has  difficulty  in  finding  a  stray 
kingdom  nowadays,  and  Harden-Hickey  bothered 
his  head  not  in  the  least  over  the  problem  of  popu- 
lating this  god-forsaken  jumble  of  volcanic  rock  and 
ashes.  Ere  long  he  blossomed  forth  most  gorgeously 
in  Paris  and  New  York  as  King  James  I  of  the  Prin- 
cipality of  Trinidad.  There  was  a  royal  cabinet,  a 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  a  Chancellerie,  and  uni- 
forms, court  costumes,  and  regalia  designed  by  the 
king  himself.  Most  dazzling  of  all  the  equipment  was 
the  Order  of  the  Insignia  of  the  Cross  of  Trini- 
dad, a  patent  and  decoration  of  nobility  to  be 
bestowed  on  those  deemed  worthy  of  the  signal 
honor. 

The  newspapers  bombarded  King  James  I  with 
gibes  and  jeers,  but  he  took  himself  with  immense, 
even  tragic  seriousness,  and  issued  a  prospectus  of 
the  settlement  of  his  kingdom,  inviting  an  aristocracy 
of  intellect  and  good  breeding  to  comprise  the  ruling 
class,  while  the  hard  work  was  to  be  done  by  hired 
menials.  He  mustered  on  paper  some  kind  of  a  list 
of  resources  of  Trinidad,  although  he  was  hard  put 
to  name  anything  very  tangible,  and  laid  special 


268         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

stress  on  the  buried  treasure.  It  was  to  be  dug  up  by 
the  subjects  and,  if  found,  to  be  divided  among  the 
patriots  who  had  bought  the  securities  issued  by  the 
royal  treasury.  Surely  a  pirates'  treasure  was 
never  before  gravely  offered  among  the  assets  of  a 
kingdom,  but  King  James  had  no  sense  of  humor, 
and  the  lost  treasure  was  as  real  to  him  as  any  other 
of  his  marvelous  dreams. 

Some  work  was  actually  done  at  Trinidad,  build- 
ing material  landed,  a  vessel  chartered  to  run  from 
Brazil,  and  a  few  misguided  colonists  recruited, 
when  in  1895  the  British  Government  ruthlessly 
knocked  the  Principality  of  Trinidad  into  a  cocked 
hat  and  toppled  over  the  throne  of  King  James  I. 
The  island  was  wanted  as  a  cable  landing  or  relay 
station,  and  a  naval  officer  raised  the  red  ensign  to 
proclaim  annexation  by  reason  of  Halley's  discovery 
in  1700.  At  this  Brazil  set  up  a  protest  on  the 
ground  that  her  Portuguese  had  been  the  original 
settlers.  "While  the  diplomats  of  these  two  powers 
were  politely  locking  horns  over  the  question  of 
ownership,  that  unfortunate  monarch,  King  James 
I  of  the  Principality  of  Trinidad,  Baron  Harden- 
Hickey  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  perceived  that 
his  realm  had  been  pulled  out  from  under  him,  so  to 
speak.  Whichever  nation  won  the  dispute  it  meant 
no  comfort  for  him.  Trinidad  was  no  longer  a 
derelict  island  and  he  was  a  king  without  a  king- 
dom. 

He  surrendered  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  his  rights, 
and  to  his  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  he  solemnly 
bequeathed  the  succession  and  the  claim  to  pro- 
prietorship. And  among  these  rights  and  privileges 
was  the  royal  interest  in  the  buried  treasure. 
Harden-Hickey,  when  he  could  no  longer  live  a  king, 


THE  PIRATES'  HOARD  OF  TRINIDAD       269 

died  as  lie  thought  befitting  a  gentleman,  by  his  own 
hand.  It  seems  a  pity  that  he  could  not  have  been 
left  alone  to  play  at  being  king,  and  to  find  the  pi- 
rates '  gold. 


CHAPTEB  X 

THE   LURE   OF   COCOS   ISLAND 

It  will  be  recalled  that  Lord  Bellomont,  in  writ- 
ing to  his  government  of  the  seizure  of  Kidd  and  his 
treasure,  made  mention  of  '  *  a  Pirate  committed  who 
goes  by  the  name  of  Captain  Davis,  that  came  pas- 
senger with  Kidd  from  Madagascar.  I  suppose 
him  to  be  that  Captain  Davis  that  Dampier  and 
Wafer  speak  of  in  their  printed  relations  of 
Voyages,  for  an  extraordinary  stout *  man ;  but  let 
him  be  as  stout  as  he  will,  here  he  is  a  prisoner,  and 
shall  be  forthcoming  upon  the  order  I  receive  from 
England  concerning  him." 

If  Bellomont  was  right  in  this  surmise,  then  he 
had  swept  into  his  drag-net  one  of  the  most  famous 
and  successful  buccaneers  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, a  man  who  must  have  regarded  the  alleged 
misdeeds  of  Kidd  as  much  ado  about  nothing.  Very 
likely  it  was  this  same  Captain  Edward  Davis  who 
may  have  been  at  the  East  Indies  on  some  lawful 
business  of  his  own,  but  he  had  no  cause  for  anxiety 
at  being  captured  by  Bellomont  as  a  suspicious  char- 
acter. He  had  honorably  retired  in  1688  from  his 
trade  of  looting  Spanish  galleons  and  treasure  towns, 
in  which  year  the  king's  pardon  was  offered  all  buc- 
caneers who  would  quit  that  way  of  life  and  claim 
the  benefit  of  the  proclamation. 

It  is  known  that  he  was  afterwards  in  England, 

i  Strong,  or  robust. 

270 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  271 

where  lie  dwelt  in  quietness  and  security.  William 
Dampier  mentions  him  always  with  peculiar  respect. 
1 '  Though  a  buccaneer,  he  was  a  man  of  much  sterling 
worth,  being  an  excellent  commander,  courageous, 
never  rash,  and  endued  in  a  superior  degree  with 
prudence,  moderation,  and  steadiness,  qualities  in 
which  the  buccaneers  generally  have  been  most  de- 
ficient. His  character  is  not  stained  with  acts  of 
cruelty;  on  the  contrary,  wherever  he  commanded, 
he  restrained  the  ferocity  of  his  companions.  It  is 
no  small  testimony  to  his  abilities  that  the  whole  of 
the  buccaneers  in  the  South  Sea  during  his  time,  in 
every  enterprise  wherein  he  bore  part,  voluntarily 
placed  themselves  under  his  guidance,  and  paid  him 
obedience  as  their  leader;  and  no  symptom  occurs 
of  their  having  at  any  time  wavered  in  this  respect 
or  shown  inclination  to  set  up  a  rival  authority.2 

During  the  Kidd  proceedings,  the  Crown  officers 
made  out  no  case  against  Edward  Davis,  and  he  ap- 
pears at  the  trial  only  as  a  witness  in  Kidd's  behalf. 
He  testified  in  corroboration  of  the  fact  that  Kidd 
had  brought  home  the  two  French  passes  taken  out 
of  his  captures,  and  his  experienced  mind  was  quick 
to  recognize  the  importance  of  the  documents  as  a 
sound  defense  against  the  charges  of  piracy. 

Curiously  enough,  the  name  of  Captain  Edward 
Davis  has  since  been  linked  with  a  buried  treasure 
story,  that  of  Cocos  Island  in  the  Pacific.  Certain 
it  is  that  he  and  his  comrades  took  great  spoils  along 
the  Spanish  coasts  of  South  America  and  the  Isth- 
mus, and  that  he  used  Cocos  Island  as  a  convenient 
base  for  careening  ship  and  recuperating  the  health 
of  his  hard-fighting,  careless  crew.    Wafer  has  given 

2  History  of  the  Buccaneers  of  America,  by  Captain  Jamea  Bumey 
(1816), 


272         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  following  description  of  this  popular  resort  for 
treasure  seekers  of  modern  times : 

"The  middle  of  Cocos  Island  is  a  steep  hill,  sur- 
rounded with  a  plain  declining  to  the  sea.  This 
plain  is  thick  set  with  cocoanut  trees ;  but  what  con- 
tributes greatly  to  the  pleasure  of  the  place  is  that 
a  great  many  springs  of  clear  and  sweet  water,  ris- 
ing to  the  top  of  the  hill,  are  there  gathered  as  in  a 
deep  large  basin  or  pond,  and  the  water  having  no 
channel,  it  overflows  the  verge  of  its  basin  in  several 
places,  and  runs  trickling  down  in  pleasant  streams. 
In  some  places  of  its  overflowing,  the  rocky  side  of 
the  hill  being  more  perpendicular  and  hanging  over 
the  plain  beneath,  the  water  pours  down  in  a  cat- 
aract, so  as  to  leave  a  dry  space  under  the  spout,  and 
form  a  kind  of  arch  of  water.  The  freshness  which 
the  falling  water  gives  the  air  in  this  hot  climate 
makes  this  a  delightful  place. 

"We  did  not  spare  the  cocoa-nuts.  One  day,  some 
of  our  men  being  minded  to  make  themselves  merry 
went  ashore  and  cut  down  a  great  many  cocoa-nut 
trees,  from  which  they  gathered  the  fruit,  and  drew 
about  twenty  gallons  of  the  milk.  They  then  sat 
down  and  drank  healths  to  the  King  and  Queen,  and 
drank  an  excessive  quantity;  yet  it  did  not  end  in 
drunkenness ;  but  this  liquor  so  chilled  and  benumbed 
their  nerves  that  they  could  neither  go  nor  stand. 
Nor  could  they  return  on  board  without  the  help  of 
those  who  had  not  been  partakers  of  the  frolic,  nor 
did  they  recover  under  four  or  five  days '  time. ' ' 3 

Captain  Edward  Davis  had  found  this  delectable 
islet  during  a  singularly  adventurous  voyage.  The 
English  buccaneers  and  the  French  filibustiers  who 
had  long  cruised  in  the  West  Indies,  were  driven  from 

3  Voyage  and  Description,  etc.,  by  Lionel  Wafer,  London   (1699). 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  273 

their  haunts  by  the  vigorous  activity  of  the  Euro- 
pean governments,  and  in  1683  an  expedition  was  or- 
ganized to  go  pirating  against  the  Spaniards  in  the 
Pacific,  or  the  "South  Sea."  Dampier  was  of  this 
number,  also  Captain  John  Cook,  Captain  Edward 
Davis,  and  Lionel  Wafer  who  wrote  the  journal  of 
the  voyage.  The  scheme  was  hatched  on  the  coast 
of  Hispaniola,  and  after  taking  two  prizes,  French 
vessels,  to  Virginia  to  be  sold,  the  company  seventy 
strong,  and  most  of  them  old  hands  at  this  game, 
stood  out  from  the  Chesapeake  in  an  eighteen-gun 
ship  called  the  Revenge. 

Off  the  coast  of  Guinea  they  found  a  large  Danish 
ship  which  better  suited  their  purpose,  wherefore 
she  was  carried  by  boarding.  They  christened  her 
the  Batchelor's  Delight,  and  abandoned  their  old 
vessel  which  was  burned,  "that  she  might  tell  no 
tales."  In  February  of  1684,  they  rounded  Cape 
Horn  and  made  for  the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez, 
which  several  of  the  company  had  previously  visited 
with  Watling.  Then  sailing  northward,  the  ship  vis- 
ited the  Galapagos  Islands  to  catch  turtle,  and  bore 
away  for  Cocos  which  was  missed  because  of  adverse 
winds  and  faulty  navigation.  On  this  stretch  of  the 
voyage,  the  Batchelor's  Delight  passed  what  was 
known  as  the  Isle  of  Plate,  or  Drake's  Island,  in  lat- 
itude 2  min.  42  sec.  S.,  which  has  an  alluring  lost 
treasure  story  of  its  own.     Says  Esquemeling : 

"This  island  received  its  name  from  Sir  Francis 
Drake  and  his  famous  actions,  for  here  it  is  reported 
by  tradition  that  he  made  the  dividend  or  sharing  of 
that  quantity  of  plate  which  he  took  in  the  Armada 
of  this  sea,  distributing  it  to  each  man  of  his  com- 
pany by  whole  bowls  full.  The  Spaniards  affirm  to 
this  day  that  he  took  at  that  time  twelve  score  tons  of 


274         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

plate,  and  sixteen  bowls  of  coined  money  a  man,  his 
number  being  then  forty-five  men  in  all.  Insomuch 
that  they  were  forced  to  heave  much  of  it  overboard, 
because  his  ship  could  not  carry  it  all.  Hence  was 
this  island  called  by  the  Spaniards  themselves  the 
Isle  of  Plate,  from  this  great  dividend,  and  by  us 
Drake's  Isle."4 

The  mainland  of  South  America,  or  New  Spain, 
was  sighted  near  Cape  Blanco,  where  Captain  John 
Cook  died,  and  Edward  Davis,  then  quartermaster, 
was  elected  commander.  He  cruised  for  some  time 
along  the  coast,  learning  among  other  interesting 
news  that  at  Point  Saint  Elena,  "many  years  before 
a  rich  Spanish  ship  was  driven  ashore  for  want  of 
wind  to  work  her,  that  immediately  after  she  struck 
she  heeled  off  to  seaward  and  sank  in  seven  or  eight 
fathoms  of  water,  and  that  no  one  ever  attempted  to 
fish  for  her  because  there  falls  in  here  a  great  high 
sea."5 

In  the  bay  of  Guayaquil,  on  the  coast  of  Peru, 
Davis  and  Swan,  who  had  joined  him  in  a  small  ship 
called  the  Cygnet,  captured  four  vessels,  three  of 
which  had  cargoes  of  negroes.  Most  of  them  were 
let  go,  to  the  great  disappointment  of  Dampier  who 
was  filled  with  a  mighty  scheme  of  treasure  finding 
which  he  outlined  in  these  words : 

"Never  was  put  into  the  hands  of  men  a  greater 
opportunity  to  enrich  themselves.  We  had  1000 
negroes,  all  lusty  young  men  and  women,  and  we 
had  200  tons  of  flour  stored  up  at  the  Galapagos 

*  "The  Buccaneers  of  America,"  by  John  Esquemeling  (Published, 
1684). 

s  Dampier.  To  search  for  this  wreck  with  a  view  to  recover  the 
treasure  in  her  was  one  of  the  objects  of  an  expedition  from  Eng- 
land to  the  South  Sea  a  few  years  later  than  the  voyage  of  Davis. 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  275 

Islands.  With  these  negroes  we  might  have  gone 
and  settled  at  Santa  Maria  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien, 
and  have  employed  them  in  getting  gold  out  of  the 
mines  there.  All  the  Indians  living  in  that  neigh- 
borhood were  mortal  enemies  to  the  Spaniards,  were 
flushed  by  successes  against  them,  and  for  several 
years  had  been  fast  friends  of  the  privateers.  Add 
to  which,  we  should  have  had  the  North  Sea  open 
to  us,  and  in  a  short  time  should  have  received  as- 
sistance from  all  parts  of  the  West  Indies.  Many 
thousands  of  buccaneers  from  Jamaica  and  the 
French  islands  would  have  flocked  to  us;  and  we 
should  have  been  an  overmatch  for  all  the  force 
the  Spaniards  could  have  brought  out  of  Peru 
against  us." 

Soon  after  this,  the  little  squadron  blockaded  the 
Bay  of  Panama  for  several  weeks,  plundering  what- 
ever shipping  came  their  way.  There  they  were 
joined  by  two  hundred  Frenchmen  and  eighty  Eng- 
lishmen, old  buccaneers  who  had  crossed  the  Isth- 
mus of  Darien  to  have  a  fling  in  the  South  Seas. 
Presently  another  party  of  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  sea  rovers  under  French  command  were  added 
to  the  fleet,  besides  a  strong  force  of  Englishmen 
led  by  one  Townley.  Davis  was  made  commander- 
in-chief  of  this  formidable  combination  of  ten  ships 
and  nine  hundred  and  sixty  men,  of  which  the  flag- 
ship was  the  Batchelor's  Delight.  They  laid  in  wait 
for  the  annual  .treasure  fleet  sent  by  the  Viceroy  of 
Peru  to  Panama  and  found  it,  but  were  beaten  off 
because  Davis'  confederates  lacked  his  eagerness  for 
fighting  at  close  quarters. 

Turning  his  attention  to  the  mainland,  Davis 
sacked  and  burned  the  city  of  Leon  on  the  lake  of 
Nicaragua.     There   one   of  the  free-booters  killed 


276         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"was  a  stout,  grey-headed  old  man  of  the  name  of 
Swan,  aged  about  eighty-four  years,  who  had  served 
under  Cromwell,  and  had  ever  since  made  privateer- 
ing or  buccaneering  his  occupation.  This  veteran 
would  not  be  dissuaded  from  going  on  the  enterprise 
against  Leon;  but  his  strength  failed  in  the  march, 
and  after  being  left  on  the  road  he  was  found  by  the 
Spaniards,  who  endeavored  to  make  him  their  pris- 
oner; but  he  refused  to  surrender,  and  fired  his 
musket  amongst  them,  having  in  reserve  a  pistol  still 
charged ;  on  which  he  was  shot  dead. ' ' 6 

After  this,  the  force  scattered  in  small  bands  to 
plunder  on  their  own  account,  Davis  keeping  together 
the  best  of  the  men  whom  he  took  to  Cocos  Island 
where  a  considerable  stay  was  made.  Thence  he  rav- 
aged the  coast  of  Peru,  capturing  many  vessels  and 
taking  many  towns.  With  booty  amounting  to  five 
thousand  pieces  of  eight  for  every  man,  Davis  sailed 
to  Juan  Fernandez  to  refit,  intending  to  proceed 
from  there  to  the  West  Indies,  but  before  the  ships 
and  men  were  ready  for  the  long  voyage  around  Cape 
Horn,  many  of  the  buccaneers  had  lost  all  their  gold 
at  dice,  and  they  could  not  endure  to  quit  the  South 
Sea  empty  handed.  Their  luckier  comrades  sailed 
for  the  West  Indies  with  Captain  Knight,  while  they 
chose  to  remain  and  try  their  fortune  afresh  with 
Captain  Davis,  in  the  Batchelor's  Delight.  They 
soon  fell  in  with  a  large  party  of  French  and  Eng- 
lish buccaneers  who  had  formerly  cruised  with  them, 
and  were  now  engaged  in  trying  to  take  the  rich  city 
of  Guayaquil.  They  were  making  sorry  business  of 
it,  however,  and  in  sore  need  of  such  a  capable  leader 
as  Davis.    He  finished  the  task  with  neatness  and 

«  "History  of  the  Buccaneers  of  America,"  by  Captain  James  Bur- 
ney  (1816). 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  277 

dispatch  and  shared  in  the  gorgeous  plunder  of  gold 
and  silver  and  jewels,  reckoned  by  one  of  the  French- 
men in  his  account  of  the  episode  at  fifteen  hundred 
thousand  livres. 

Davis  was  now  satisfied  to  leave  the  Pacific,  but 
whether  he  went  first  to  Cocos  Island  to  bury  any 
treasure,  history  saith  not,  although  tradition 
roundly  affirms  that  he  did.  That  he  and  many  of 
his  fellow  buccaneers  frequently  resorted  to  the  Gal- 
apagos group,  as  well  as  tarrying  at  Cocos,  is  a  mat- 
ter of  record.  Of  the  former  islands,  Captain  Col- 
net  who  touched  there  in  1793,  wrote : 7 

"This  isle  appears  to  have  been  a  favorite  resort 
of  the  buccaneers  as  we  found  seats  made  by  them 
of  stone  and  earth,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
broken  jars  scattered  about,  and  some  whole,  in 
which  the  Peruvian  wine  and  liquors  of  the  country 
are  preserved.  "We  also  found  daggers,  nails  and 
other  implements.  The  watering-place  of  the  buc- 
caneers was  at  this  time  entirely  dried  up,  and  there 
was  only  found  a  small  rivulet  between  two  hills,  run- 
ning into  the  sea,  the  northernmost  of  which  hills 
forms  the  south  point  of  Fresh  Water  Bay.  There 
is  plenty  of  wood,  but  that  near  the  shore  is  not  large 
enough  for  other  use  than  firewood.' ' 

The  buccaneers  of  other  voyages  than  these  may 
have  landed  at  Cocos  Island  to  leave  their  treasure. 
Heaven  knows  they  found  plenty  of  it  in  those 
waters.  There  was  Captain  Bartholomew  Sharp, 
for  example,  with  whom  Dampier  had  sailed  several 
years  before.  He  took  a  Guayaquil  ship  called  the 
San  Pedro  off  Panama,  and  aboard  her  found  nearly 
forty  thousand  pieces  of  eight,  besides  silver,  silver 
bars  and  ingots  of  gold,  and  a  little  later  captured 

TColnet's  "Voyage  to  the  Pacific," 


278         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

the  tall  galleon  Rosario,  the  richest  prize  ever 
boarded  by  the  buccaneers.  She  had  many  chests 
of  pieces  of  eight,  and  a  quantity  of  wine  and  brandy. 
Down  in  her  hold,  bar  upon  bar,  "were  700  pigs  of 
plate,"  rough  silver  from  the  mines,  not  yet  made 
ready  for  the  Lima  mint.  The  pirates  thought  this 
crude  silver  was  tin,  and  so  left  it  where  it  lay,  in 
the  hold  of  the  Rosario,  "which  we  turned  away 
loose  into  the  sea,"  8  with  the  precious  stuff  aboard 
her.  One  pig  of  the  seven  hundred  was  taken  aboard 
the  Trinity  of  Captain  Sharp  "to  make  bullets  of." 
About  two-thirds  of  it  was  "melted  and  squan- 
dered," but  a  fragment  remained  when  the  ship 
touched  at  Antigua,  homeward  bound,  and  was  given 
to  a  "Bristol  man"  in  exchange  for  a  drink  of  rum. 
He  sold  it  in  England  for  seventy-five  pounds  ster- 
ling. 

"Thus,"  says  Basil  Ringrose,  "we  parted  with  the 
richest  booty  we  got  on  the  whole  voyage."  Cap- 
tain Bartholomew  Sharp  may  have  been  thinking  of 
something  else  than  the  cargo  of  silver,  for  aboard 
the  Rosario  was  a  woman,  "the  beautifullest  Crea- 
ture that  his  Eyes  had  ever  beheld, ' '  while  Ringrose 
calls  her  "the  most  beautiful  woman  that  I  ever  saw 
in  the  South  Seas." 

Of  these  wild  crews  that  flung  away  their  lives  and 
their  treasure  to  enrich  romance  and  tradition,  it  has 
been  said: 

1 '  They  were  of  that  old  breed  of  rover  whose  port 
lay  always  a  little  farther  on;  a  little  beyond  the 
sky-line.  Their  concern  was  not  to  preserve  life,  but 
rather  to  squander  it  away ;  to  fling  it,  like  so  much 
oil,  into  the  fire,  for  the  pleasure  of  going  up  in  a 
blaze.    If  they  lived  riotously,  let  it  be  urged  in  their 

s  Esquemeling. 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  279 

favor  that  at  least  they  lived.  They  lived  their 
vision.  They  were  ready  to  die  for  what  they  be- 
lieved to  be  worth  doing.  We  think  them  terrible. 
Life  itself  is  terrible.  But  life  was  not  terrible  to 
them,  for  they  were  comrades;  and  comrades  and 
brothers-in-arms  are  stronger  than  life.  Those  who 
live  at  home  at  ease  may  condemn  them.  The  old 
buccaneers  were  happier  than  they.  The  buccaneers 
had  comrades  and  the  strength  to  lead  their  own 
lives."  9 

This  stout  old  breed  had  long  since  vanished  when 
Cocos  Island  once  more  became  the  theater  of  buried 
treasure  legend.  The  versions  of  this  latter  story 
agree  in  the  essential  particular  that  it  was  Captain 
Thompson  of  the  merchant  brig  Mary  Dear  who  stole 
the  twelve  million  dollars '  worth  of  plate,  jewels,  and 
gold  coin  which  had  been  entrusted  to  him  by  the 
Spanish  residents  of  Lima  in  1820,  and  buried  them 
on  Cocos  Island.  Then,  after  he  had  joined  the 
crew  of  the  pirate,  Benito  Bonito,  and  somehow  man- 
aged to  escape  alive  when  that  enterprising  gentle- 
man came  to  grief,  he  tried  to  return  to  Cocos  Island 
to  recover  the  fabulous  treasure. 

The  account  of  his  later  wanderings  and  adven- 
tures, as  handed  down  in  its  most  trustworthy  form, 
has  been  the  inspiration  of  several  modern  treas- 
ure-seeking expeditions.  It  is  related  that  a  native 
of  Newfoundland,  Keating  by  name,  while  sailing 
from  England  in  1844,  met  a  man  of  middle  age, 
"handsome  in  appearance  and  having  about  him 
something  of  an  air  of  mystery  which  had  an  attrac- 
tion of  its  own."  This  was,  of  course,  none  other 
than  Captain  Thompson  of  the  Mary  Dear.  He  be- 
came friendly  with  Keating  and  when  they  landed 

»  "On  the  Spanish  Main,"  by  John  Masefield. 


280         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

at  Newfoundland,  the  latter  asked  him  to  accept  the 
hospitality  of  his  home.  The  stranger,  who  ap- 
peared anxious  to  avoid  public  notice,  remained  for 
some  time  with  Keating,  and  wishing  to  make  some 
return  for  his  kindness,  at  length  confided  that  he 
was  one  of  the  two  survivors  of  Benito  Bonito's 
crew,  and  possessed  a  secret  which  would  make  them 
immensely  rich.  If  Keating  could  persuade  one  of 
the  merchants  of  Newfoundland  to  fit  out  a  vessel, 
they  would  sail  to  the  Pacific  and  fetch  home  enough 
treasure  to  buy  the  whole  island. 

Keating  believed  the  strange  tale  and  passed  it 
on  to  a  ship-owner  who  agreed  to  furnish  a  vessel 
provided  one  Captain  Bogue  should  go  in  command 
of  the  expedition.  While  preparations  were  under 
way,  Thompson  was  inconsiderate  enough  to  die,  but 
it  goes  without  saying  that  he  left  a  map  carefully 
marked  with  crosses  and  bearings.  Keating  and 
Bogue  set  sail  with  this  precious  document,  and  after 
a  long  and  tedious  voyage  into  the  Pacific,  they  cast 
anchor  off  Cocos  Island. 

There  the  brace  of  adventurers  were  rowed  ashore, 
leaving  the  vessel  in  charge  of  the  mate.  Captain 
Thompson's  directions  were  found  to  be  accurate, 
and  a  cave  was  discovered  and  in  it  a  dazzling  store 
of  treasure  to  make  an  honest  sailor-man  rub  his 
eyes  and  stagger  in  his  tracks.  Keating  and  Bogue 
decided  that  the  secret  must  be  withheld  from  the 
crew  at  all  hazards,  but  their  excitement  betrayed 
them  and  all  hands  clamored  that  they  must  be  given 
shares  of  the  booty.  Keating  protested  that  a  di- 
vision should  not  be  made  until  they  had  returned 
to  their  home  port  and  the  owner  of  the  ship  had 
been  given  the  greater  part  which  belonged  to  him 
by  rights. 


Treasure-seekers  digging  on  Cocos  Island. 


Christian  Cruse,  the  hermit  treasure-seeker  of   Cocos   Island. 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  281 

A  mutiny  flared  up,  and  the  mate  and  the  men 
went  ashore,  leaving  Keating  and  Bogue  marooned 
on  board,  but  the  search  was  bootless  for  lack  of  di- 
rections. They  returned  to  the  ship  in  a  very  savage 
temper  indeed  and  swore  to  kill  the  two  leaders  un- 
less they  should  tell  them  how  to  find  the  cave. 
Promising  to  show  the  way  on  the  morrow,  Keating 
and  Bogue  slipped  ashore  in  a  whale-boat  that  night, 
planning  to  take  all  the  treasure  they  could  carry 
and  hoping  to  find  opportunity  to  secrete  it  on  ship- 
board. 

This  program  was  spoiled  by  a  tragedy.  While 
trying  to  get  back  to  the  ship  through  the  heavy  surf 
that  roared  on  the  beach,  the  boat  was  upset.  Bogue, 
heavily  ballasted  with  treasure,  went  to  the  bottom 
like  a  plummet  and  was  seen  no  more.  Keating 
clung  to  the  water-logged  boat  which  was  caught  in 
a  current  and  carried  to  sea.  Two  days  later  he  was 
picked  up,  exhausted  almost  unto  death,  by  a  Span- 
ish schooner  which  put  him  ashore  on  the  coast  of 
Costa  Rica.  Thence  he  made  his  way  overland  to 
the  Atlantic,  and  worked  his  passage  home  to  New- 
foundland in  a  trading  vessel.  His  ship  returned 
with  never  a  doubloon  among  the  mutinous  crew. 

This  experience  seemed  to  have  snuffed  out  the 
ardor  of  Keating  for  treasure-seeking,  and  it  was  as 
much  as  twenty  years  later  that  he  confided  the  tale 
to  a  townsman  named  Nicholas  Fitzgerald.  They 
talked  about  fitting  out  another  ship,  but  Keating  up 
and  died  in  the  midst  of  the  scheming.  He  had  mar- 
ried a  very  young  wife,  and  she  set  great  store  by 
the  chart  and  directions  preserved  as  a  heritage  from 
Captain  Thompson.  In  1894  she  struck  a  partner- 
ship with  a  Captain  Hackett  and  they  organized  an 
expedition  which  sailed  for  Cocos  Island  in  a  small 


282         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

brig  called  the  Aurora.  This  adventure  amounted 
to  nothing.  There  was  dissension  on  board,  the  voy- 
age was  longer  than  expected,  provisions  fell  short, 
and  the  Aurora  jogged  homeward  without  sighting 
the  treasure  island. 

Meanwhile  other  explorers  had  been  busy.  A 
German,  Von  Bremer,  spent  several  thousand  dol- 
lars in  excavating  and  tunneling,  but  found  no  re- 
ward. The  tales  of  treasure  also  fired  the  brain  of 
a  remarkable  person  named  Gissler,  who  took  up  his 
solitary  residence  on  Cocos  Island  more  than  twenty 
years  ago  where  he  has  since  reigned  with  the  title 
and  authority  of  governor  of  the  same,  by  virtue  of 
a  commission  duly  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  by 
the  republic  of  Costa  Eica.  As  a  persistent  and  in- 
dustrious treasure-hunter,  this  tropical  hermit  is 
unique. 

He  was  visited  in  1896  by  Captain  Shrapnel  of 
H.  M.  S.  Haughty  who  had  heard  the  stories  of 
Thompson  and  Benito  Bonito  along  the  coastwise 
ports.  By  way  of  giving  his  blue-jackets  some- 
thing to  do,  he  landed  a  party  three  hundred  strong 
on  Cocos  Island  whose  landscape  they  vainly  blasted 
and  otherwise  disarranged  for  several  days,  but 
without  success.  The  Admiralty  lacked  imagination 
and  reprimanded  Captain  Shrapnel  for  his  enterpris- 
ing break  in  the  dull  routine  of  duty.  It  was  decreed 
that  no  more  naval  vessels  were  to  touch  at  Cocos 
Island  on  any  pretext  whatever. 

This  by  no  means  discouraged  Captain  Shrapnel 
who  waited  until  it  was  permissible  for  him  to  ap- 
ply for  leave  of  absence.  In  England  he  found  gen- 
tlemen adventurers  sufficient  to  finance  an  expedi- 
tion which  sailed  in  the  Lytton  in  1903.  Of  this 
party  was  Hervey  de  Montmorency,  whose  account 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  283 

of  the  venture  includes  the  following  informa- 
tion: 

"On  the  ninth  of  August,  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  every  treasure-seeker  was  on  deck  strain- 
ing his  eyes  to  penetrate  the  mist  and  darkness; 
then  as  the  sun  rose,  the  gray  mass  on  the  horizon 
turned  to  green,  and  Cocos  Island,  with  its  lofty 
wooded  peak,  its  abrupt,  cliff-like  shores,  its  in- 
numerable cascades  of  sparkling  water,  was  dis- 
played to  eager  and  admiring  eyes. 

"The  anchor  was  dropped  in  the  little  bay,  and 
at  the  splash,  flocks  of  birds  rose  screaming  and 
circling  overhead.  The  sandy  beach  on  which  the 
seekers  landed  is  strewn  with  boulders,  on  each  of 
which  is  carved  the  name  and  business  of  some  ves- 
sel which  has  called  at  Cocos.  Some  of  the  dates 
carry  one  back  to  Nelson's  time;  and  all  sorts  of 
ships  seem  to  have  visited  the  lonely  little  island, 
while  many  a  boulder  testified  to  blighted  hopes  and 
fruitless  errands  after  treasure. 

"Captain  Shrapnel's  party  set  to  work  with  the 
highest  expectation.  No  previous  expedition  had 
been  so  well  furnished  with  clues.  Once  on  the  right 
track,  it  seemed  impossible  that  they  should  fail. 
They  searched  for  ten  days,  encouraged  now  by  the 
finding  of  the  broken  arm  of  a  battered  cross 
brought  from  some  Peruvian  church,  again  by  a 
glimpse  into  what  promised  falsely  to  be  a  treasure 
cave;  but  all  blasting,  digging,  and  damming  of 
streams  proved  useless.  Captain  Shrapnel  at  last 
called  a  council  of  war,  and  declared  his  opinion  that 
the  search  was  hopeless;  landslips,  previous  exca- 
vations, and  the  torrential  rains  of  this  tropical 
region  had  so  entirely  altered  the  face  of  the  island 
that  clues  and  directions  were  of  little  avail,  nor  did 


284         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

their  agreement  with  the  owners  of  the  Lytton  per- 
mit of  a  longer  stay  on  Cocos. 

"We  did  not  leave  the  island,  however,  without 
paying  a  visit  to  its  governor,  Gissler,  whose  little 
settlement  is  on  "Wafer  Bay.  Bounding  the  head- 
land from  Chatham  Bay,  we  came  into  the  quiet 
little  nook  where  he  has  made  his  home,  and  he  at 
once  waded  out  in  the  surf  to  greet  the  visitors, — 
a  tall,  bronzed  man,  with  a  long,  gray  beard  reaching 
below  his  waist,  and  deep-set  eyes  which  gazed  with 
obvious  suspicion.  Gissler  had  learned  to  distrust 
the  coming  of  strangers,  who  have  paid  small  regard 
to  his  rights,  pillaging  his  crops,  killing  his  live- 
stock, and  even  making  free  with  his  home. 

"Beassured  by  Captain  Shrapnel's  party  that  he 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  them,  he  invited  them  to 
his  house  and  clearing,  and  told  them  of  his  long 
and  lonely  hunt  for  the  pirate's  treasure.  When 
he  first  went  to  live  on  Cocos,  he  found  many  traces 
of  the  freebooters.  There  were  traces  of  their  old 
camps,  with  thirty-two  stone  steps  leading  to  a  cave, 
old  fire-places,  rusty  pots  and  arms,  and  empty  bot- 
tles to  mark  the  scene  of  their  carousing.  He  had 
found  only  one  gold  coin,  a  doubloon  of  the  time  of 
Charles  III  of  Spain,  bearing  the  date  of  1788." 

In  1901,  a  company  was  formed  in  Vancouver, 
with  a  capital  of  $10,000,  to  fit  out  an  expedition  for 
Cocos  Island.  Gissler  got  wind  of  this  project  and 
formally  addressed  the  government  of  Costa  Bica 
in  these  written  words : 

"Allow  me  to  inform  you  that  no  company  with 
any  such  intent  would  have  the  right  to  land  on 
Cocos  Island,  as  I  hold  a  concession  from  the  author- 
ities of  Costa  Bica  in  regard  to  the  said  treasure,  in 
which  concession  the  Costa  Bica  government  has 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  285 

an  interest.  Certainly  anything  that  might  be  under- 
taken by  such  a  company  from  Vancouver  would 
amount  to  naught  without  my  consent. ' ' 

This  protest  was  paid  due  heed,  but  two  years 
later,  an  Englishman,  Claude  Robert  Guiness,  per- 
suaded the  officials  of  Costa  Rica  to  listen  kindly 
to  his  plea,  and  he  was  granted  the  right  to  explore 
the  island  for  two  years.  Gissler  stood  by  his  guns, 
drew  up  a  list  of  grievances,  and  sailed  for  the  main- 
land in  a  small  boat  to  assert  his  rights  to  his  king- 
dom. At  that  time,  a  wealthy  British  naval  officer, 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  was  bound  out  to  Cocos  Island 
in  his  own  steam  yacht  with  a  costly  equipment  of 
machinery  and  a  heavy  crew  to  find  the  treasure.  He 
found  poor  Gissler  in  a  Costa  Rican  port,  became 
interested  in  his  wrongs,  and  promptly  supported  his 
claims.  An  English  nobleman  with  surplus  wealth 
is  a  person  to  wield  influence  in  the  councils  of  a 
Central  American  republic  and  Gissler  was  pacified 
and  given  a  renewal  of  his  documentary  rights  as 
governor  and  population  of  Cocos  Island. 

Lord  Fitzwilliam  took  him  on  board  the  yacht  and 
in  this  dignified  fashion  Gissler  returned  to  this 
kingdom.  He  earned  his  passage  by  telling  his  own 
version  of  the  treasure,  as  he  had  culled  and  revised 
it  from  various  sources,  and  his  bill  of  particulars 
was  something  to  gloat  over,  including  as  it  did  such 
dazzling  bits  of  narrative  as  this : 

"Besides  the  treasure  buried  by  Captain  Thomp- 
son, there  was  vast  wealth  left  on  Cocos  by  Benito 
Bonito  himself.  He  captured  a  treasure  galleon  off 
the  coast  of  Peru  and  took  two  other  vessels  laden 
with  riches  sent  out  from  Mexico  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  revolution  against  the  Spaniards.  On  Cocos  he 
buried  three  hundred  thousand  pounds'  weight  of 


286         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

silver  and  silver  dollars,  in  a  sandstone  cave  in  the 
side  of  the  mountain.  Then  he  laid  kegs  of  powder 
on  top  of  the  cave  and  blew  away  the  face  of  the 
cliff.  In  another  excavation  he  placed  gold  bricks, 
733  of  them,  four  by  three  inches  in  size,  and  two 
inches  thick,  and  273  gold-hilted  swords,  inlaid  with 
jewels.  On  a  bit  of  land  in  the  little  river,  he  buried 
several  iron  kettles  filled  with  gold  coin." 

Lord  Fitzwilliam  and  his  yacht  arrived  at  Cocos 
in  December  of  1904,  and  the  party  of  laborers  fell 
to  with  prodigious  zest.  While  they  were  making 
the  dirt  fly,  another  English  expedition,  commanded 
by  Arnold  Gray,  hove  in  sight,  and  proceeded  to 
begin  excavating  at  inconveniently  close  range.  In 
fact,  both  parties  were  cocksure  that  the  lost  cave 
was  located  in  one  spot  beneath  a  great  mass  of 
debris  that  had  tumbled  down  from  the  overhanging 
height.  The  inevitable  result  was  that  a  pretty  quar- 
rel arose.  Neither  force  would  yield  its  ground. 
Inasmuch  as  both  were  using  dynamite  rather  lav- 
ishly, treasure  hunting  became  as  dangerous  as  war. 
When  the  rival  expeditions  were  not  dodging  the 
rocks  that  were  sent  hurtling  by  the  blasting,  they 
were  using  bad  language,  the  one  accusing  the  other 
of  effacing  its  landmarks  and  playing  hob  with  its 
clues. 

The  climax  was  a  pitched  battle  in  which  heads 
were  broken  and  considerable  blood  spilt.  It  is  al- 
most needless  to  observe  that  no  treasure  was  found. 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  sailed  home  in  his  yacht  and  found 
that  the  news  of  his  escapade  had  aroused  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  naval  authorities,  after  which  he  lost 
all  zest  for  finding  buried  treasure. 

Since  then,  hardly  a  year  has  passed  but  an  ex- 
pedition or  two  for  Cocos  Island  has  been  in  the 


THE  LURE  OF  COCOS  ISLAND  287 

wind.  In  1906,  a  company  organized  in  Seattle  is- 
sued an  elaborate  printed  prospectus,  offering  shares 
in  a  venture  to  sail  in  a  retired  pilot  schooner,  and 
recounting  all  the  old  tales  of  Captain  Thompson, 
Benito  Bonito,  and  Keating.  At  about  the  same 
time,  a  wealthy  woman  of  Boston,  after  a  summer 
visit  to  Newfoundland,  was  seized  with  enthusiasm 
for  a  romantic  speculation  and  talked  of  finding  a 
ship  and  crew.  San  Francisco  has  beheld  more  than 
one  schooner  slide  out  through  the  Golden  Gate  in 
quest  of  Cocos  Island. 

To  enumerate  these  ventures  and  describe  them 
in  detail  would  make  a  tiresome  catalogue  of  the 
names  of  vessels  and  adventurous  men  with  the  treas- 
ure bee  in  their  bonnets.  Charts  and  genuine  in- 
formation are  no  longer  necessary  to  one  of  these  ex- 
peditions. Cocos  Island  is  under  such  a  spell  as 
has  set  a  multitude  to  digging  for  the  treasure  of 
Captain  Kidd.  The  gold  is  there,  this  is  taken  for 
granted,  and  no  questions  are  asked.  The  island  was 
long  a  haunt  of  buccaneers  and  pirates,  this  much  is 
certain,  and  who  ever  heard  of  a  true  pirate  of 
romance  who  knew  his  business  that  did  not  em- 
ploy his  spare  time  in  ' l  a-burying  of  his  treasure  f ' ' 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  MYSTERY   OF  THE  LUTINE   FEIGATB 

Harbored  in  the  stately  edifice  of  the  Royal  Ex- 
change, down  in  the  heart  of  London  City,  is  that 
ancient  and  powerful  corporation  known  to  seafar- 
ing men  the  world  over  as  Lloyd's.  Its  chief  busi- 
ness is  the  underwriting  of  maritime  insurance 
risks  and  its  word  is  law  wherever  fly  the  house-flags 
of  merchant  shipping.  More  than  two  hundred 
years  ago,  one  Edward  Lloyd  kept  a  coffeehouse  in 
Tower  Street,  a  thoroughfare  between  Wapping  and 
the  Thames  side  of  the  city,  and  because  of  its  con- 
venient situation  the  place  became  a  popular  resort 
for  sea  captains,  underwriters,  and  insurance  brok- 
ers who  discussed  such  important  matters  as  ar- 
rivals in  port,  wrecks,  missing  ships,  and  rumors 
of  war. 

In  time  Lloyd's  coffeehouse  was  recognized  as  a 
sort  of  unofficial  headquarters  for  this  special  variety 
of  insurance  speculation,  and  the  gentlemen  most 
active  there  drifted  into  a  loosely  formed  organiza- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  making  the  business  less 
hazardous.  In  1773,  this  association  of  underwrit- 
ers moved  into  the  Royal  Exchange,  taking  the  name 
of  Lloyd's,  and  later  appointed  a  governing  body 
or  committee  to  control  the  more  adventurous  spirits 
who  were  fond  of  gambling  on  the  chances  of  war,  on 
the  length  of  Napoleon's  life,  and  who  would  under- 
take to  insure  a  man  against  the  risk  of  twins  in  his 

288 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       289 

family.  From  this  beginning  grew  the  vastly  influ- 
ential and  highly  organized  Lloyd's  of  the  present 
day  which  is  something  more  than  a  corporation. 
It  is  also  an  aggregation  of  individual  underwrit- 
ers and  brokers  carrying  on  business,  each  for  his 
own  personal  profit  and  on  the  strength  of  his  good 
name  and  resources.  As  a  corporation,  Lloyd's  has 
no  financial  liability  in  the  event  of  the  failure  of 
any  of  its  members  or  subscribers. 

All  that  Lloyd's  does,  in  its  corporate  capacity, 
is  to  permit  the  admission  only  of  men  of  stability 
and  sound  repute  by  means  of  stringent  tests,  and 
to  exact  a  money  guarantee  or  deposit  from  its  mem- 
bers in  the  sum  of  £5000  or  £6000,  together  with 
entrance  fees  of  £400,  and  annual  fees  of  twenty 
guineas.  These  payments  form  what  may  be  called 
a  reserve  fund,  and  the  individual  underwriter 
writes  his  own  policies.  If  the  risk  is  heavier 
than  he  wishes  to  assume  he  divides  it  among  his 
fellows. 

There  are  few  more  interesting  places  in  London 
than  Lloyd's,  encrusted  as  it  is  with  the  barnacles 
of  conservative  tradition,  and  hedged  about  with  all 
the  exclusiveness  of  a  club.  The  entrance  is  guarded 
by  a  burly  porter  gorgeously  arrayed  in  the  scarlet 
robes  and  gold-banded  hat  of  a  by-gone  century. 
Having  run  the  gauntlet  of  this  dragon,  one  is  likely 
to  seek  the  underwriter's  room  where  hundreds  of 
members  and  their  clerks  are  quartered  at  rows  of 
little  desks  or  "boxes,"  every  man  of  them  with  his 
hat  clapped  on  his  head  as  decreed  by  ancient  custom. 

There  is  always  a  crowd  of  them  around  the  "Ar- 
rival Book"  and  the  "Loss  Book"  in  which  are 
posted  the  movements  of  vessels  in  every  port  of 
the  world,  and  the  wrecks  that  number  three  thou- 


290         THE  BOOK  OF,  BURIED  TREASURE 

sand  every  year.  The  famous  "Captains'  Room" 
where  the  mariners  used  to  gather  and  swap  briny 
yarns  is  now  used  for  the  prosaic  purposes  of 
luncheon  and  for  the  auction  sales  of  ships. 

In  the  two  large  and  handsome  rooms  used  by  the 
secretary  and  by  the  committee  of  Lloyd's  are  many 
interesting  relics  of  the  earlier  history  of  this  body. 
Here  is  the  oldest  policy  known  to  the  annals  of 
maritime  insurance,  a  faded  document  issued  on 
January  20,  1680,  for  £1200  on  a  ship,  the  Golden 
Fleece,  and  her  cargo,  on  a  voyage  from  Lisbon  to 
Venice,  at  £4  per  cent,  premium.  Hanging  on  these 
walls  are  also  a  policy  written  on  the  life  of  Napo- 
leon, and  an  autograph  letter  from  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  as  "Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports. 

The  most  conspicuous  furnishings  of  the  Com- 
mittee Room  are  a  huge  table,  highly  polished,  of 
dark  wood,  a  magnificently  carved  arm  chair,  and 
a  ship's  bell.  The  table  bears  a  silver  plate  in- 
scribed as  follows : 

H.B.M.  Ship  La  Lutine. 

32  Gun  Frigate 

Commanded  by  Captain  Lancelot  Skynner,  R.N. 

Sailed  from  Yarmouth  Roads 

On  the  morning  of  the  9th  October,  1799  with  a  large 

amount  of  specie  on  board, 

And  was  wrecked  off  the  Island  of  Ylieland  the  same  night, 

When  all  on  board  were  lost  except  one  man. 

The  rudder  of  which  this  table  was  made  and  the  rud- 
der chain  and  the  bell  which  the  table  supports,  were  re- 
covered from  the  wreck  of  the  ill-fated  vessel,  in  the  year 
1859,  together  with  a  part  of  the  specie,  which  is  now  in 
custody  of  The  Committee  for  managing  the  affairs  of 
Lloyd's." 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       291 

The  chair  has  a  similar  inscription,  and  these 
pieces  of  furniture  serve  to  remind  the  visitor  that 
Lloyd's  has  a  lost  treasure  story  of  its  own.  The 
flavor  of  piracy  is  lacking,  true  enough,  but  the 
tragedy  of  the  Lutine  frigate  possessed  mystery  and 
romance  nevertheless,  and  is  worthy  of  a  place  in 
such  a  book  as  this.  As  the  owner  of  a  treasure  lost 
more  than  a  century  ago,  the  corporation  of  Lloyd's 
still  considers  the  frigate  a  possible  asset,  and  as  re- 
cently as  May  31,  1910,  Captain  E.  F.  Inglefield, 
the  Secretary  of  Lloyd's  wrote  the  author  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Various  attempts  have  been  made,  with  the  sanc- 
tion of  Lloyd's,  to  recover  further  treasure,  but  it 
was  not  until  1886,  when  steam  suction  dredgers 
were  first  employed,  that  any  results  worthy  of  no- 
tice were  obtained.  A  number  of  coins  and  other 
relics  to  the  value  of  about  £700  were  obtained. 

"In  1886,  also,  two  guns  were  recovered  from 
the  wreck,  one  of  which,  after  being  suitably 
mounted  on  a  naval  gun  carriage,  was  presented  by 
Lloyd's  to  the  Corporation  of  London  and  has  been 
placed  in  the  Museum  at  the  Guildhall.  The  other 
was  graciously  accepted  by  Her  Late  Majesty  Queen 
Victoria,  and  was  forwarded  to  Windsor  Castle. 

"In  1891,  a  few  coins  of  small  value  were  recov- 
ered. Since  that  date,  operations  have  been  contin- 
ued at  various  times  by  salvors  under  agreement 
with  Lloyd's,  but  nothing  of  intrinsic  value  has  since 
been  obtained.  In  1896,  a  cannon  which  was  after- 
wards presented  to  H.  M.  Queen  Wilhelmina  of  Hol- 
land by  the  Committee  of  Lloyds,  was  found  together 
with  some  small  pieces  of  the  wreck,  etc. 

"In  1898,  some  timber  weighing  about  two  hun- 
dred weight  was  recovered  from  the  wreck,  and  was 


292         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

presented  to  the  Liverpool  Underwriters'  Associa- 
tion, whose  Chairman,  Mr.  S.  Cross,  had  a  chair 
made  from  the  wood,  which  he  presented  to  that  As- 
sociation. 

"A  company  which  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
continuing  operations  has  made  efforts  at  various 
times,  but  the  site  is  extremely  exposed  and  owing  to 
bad  weather,  it  has  often  been  found  impossible  to 
continue  dredging  operations  for  more  than  a  few 
days  each  year.  I  trust  the  above  information  may 
be  of  service  to  you,  but  I  may  add  that  I  understand 
that  it  is  this  year  intended  to  operate  with  some 
new  apparatus." 

Some  light  was  thrown  on  this  latest  enterprise 
by  the  publication  of  the  following  in  a  recent  issue 
of  Lloyd's  Weekly  Newspaper  of  London: 

"SEA  TREASURE  GETTER. 

NOVEL   MACHINE   TO  BE  USED  FOR   RAISING   SUNKEN   WEALTH. 

"An  extraordinary  machine  was  towed  to  the  mouth  of 
the  River  Colne,  off  Brightlingsea,  and  anchored  on  Thurs- 
day. It  is  to  be  used  in  a  final  attempt  to  recover  £500,000 
treasure  of  gold,  in  coins  and  bars,  which  is  said  to  have 
gone  down  in  H.  M.  S.  Lutine  in  1797  near  the  island  of 
Terschelling,  off  the  coast  of  Holland. 

"A  portion  of  the  treasure  has  been  recovered,  but  the 
ordinary  dredging  plant  is  now  useless,  as  the  vessel  has 
sunk  into  the  sand.  The  new  device  is  a  great  steel  tube 
nearly  100  ft.  in  length,  and  wide  enough  to  allow  a  man 
to  walk  erect  down  its  centre.  At  one  end  is  a  metal 
chamber  provided  with  windows  and  doors,  and  at  the  other 
a  medley  of  giant  hooks  and  other  tackle. 

"The  apparatus  has  just  been  completed,  after  years 
of  work,  by  Messers.  Forrest  and  Co.,  shipbuilders,  in 
their  Wyvenhoe  yard.     One  end  of  the  tube,  it  is  explained, 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       293 

will  be  clamped  to  the  side  of  a  steamship  or  barge.  The 
other  end,  by  means  of  water-ballast  tanks,  will  be  sunk 
until  it  touches  the  bottom.  Then,  by  means  of  com- 
pressed air,  all  the  water  will  be  forced  from  the  tube  and 
also  from  the  chamber  at  the  bottom  of  it,  which  will  be 
flush  upon  the  bed  of  the  sea. 

"Divers  will  walk  down  a  stairway  in  the  centre  of  the 
tube  until  they  reach  the  submerged  chamber.  Here  they 
will  don  their  diving  costumes,  and,  opening  a  series  of 
water-tight  doors,  will  step  out  into  the  water.  Engineers 
will  be  stationed  in  the  chamber,  and,  following  the  in- 
structions of  the  divers,  who  will  communicate  with  them 
by  means  of  portable  telephones,  they  will  operate  the 
mechanism  of  two  powerful  suction  pumps,  or  dredges, 
which  are  fitted  to  the  sides  of  the  tube. 

''These  dredges,  it  is  hoped,  will  suck  away  the  sand 
around  the  sides  of  the  heavy  chamber  until  it  gradually 
sinks  by  its  own  weight  right  down  on  to  the  deck  of  the 
wrecked  ship.  Then  the  divers,  making  their  way  from 
the  chamber  to  the  deck  of  the  ship,  and  thence  to  the 
hold,  will  be  able  to  transfer  the  treasure  from  the  ship  to 
the  chamber  by  easy  stages." 

How  Lloyd's  happens  to  own  a  treasure  frigate 
of  the  English  navy,  lost  more  than  a  century  ago,  is 
explained  in  the  following  narrative,  many  of  the 
facts  of  which  were  found  in  "The  History  of 
Lloyd's  and  of  Marine  Insurance  in  Great  Britain," 
by  Frederick  Martin,  a  work  now  out  of  print.1 

On  October  19, 1799,  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  of 
London  contained  this  news : 

"Intelligence  was  this  day  received  at  the  Ad- 

1  "The  particulars  concerning  the  Lutine  which  you  have  obtained 
from  Martin's  'History  of  Lloyd's,'  can,  I  think,  be  considered  as 
accurate,  as  I  believe  Mr.  Martin  had  full  means  of  access  to  any 
documents  which  were  available  at  Lloyd's  or  elsewhere  in  con- 
nection witu  this  matter."  (Note  from  Captain  Inglefield,  Secretary 
of  Lloyd's,  to  the  author.) 


294         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

miralty  from  Admiral  Mitchell,  communicating  the 
total  loss  of  La  Lutine,  of  32  guns,  Captain  Skyn- 
ner,  on  the  outward  bank  of  the  Fly  Island  Passage, 
on  the  night  of  the  9th  inst.,  in  a  heavy  gale  at 
N.  N.  W.  La  Lutine,  had  on  the  same  morning, 
sailed  from  Yarmouth  Eoads  with  several  passen- 
gers, and  an  immense  quantity  of  treasure  for  the 
Texel ;  but  a  strong  lee-tide  rendered  every  effort  of 
Captain  Skynner  to  avoid  the  threatened  danger 
unavailable,  and  it  was  alike  impossible  during  the 
night  to  receive  any  assistance,  either  from  the 
Arrow,  Captain  Portlock,  which  was  in  company,  or 
from  the  shore,  from  whence  several  showts  were 
in  readiness  to  go  to  her.  When  the  dawn  broke, 
La  Lutine  was  in  vain  looked  for;  she  had  gone  to 
pieces,  and  all  on  board  unfortunately  perished,  ex- 
cept two  men  who  were  picked  up,  and  one  of  whom 
has  since  died  from  the  fatigue  he  has  encountered. 
The  survivor  is  Mr.  Shabrack,  a  notary  public.  In 
the  annals  of  our  naval  history  there  has  scarcely 
ever  happened  a  loss  attended  with  so  much  calamity, 
both  of  a  public  as  well  as  a  private  nature." 

In  almost  all  the  accounts  of  the  wreck  of  the 
Lutine  it  is  stated  as  a  fact  that  the  frigate  was 
bound  to  the  Texel,  and  that  the  bullion  and  treasure 
she  carried,  and  which  was  lost  in  her,  was  designed 
for  the  payment  of  the  British  forces  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Both  statements  are  without  foundation,  as 
proved  by  a  careful  search  in  the  archives  of  the  Ad- 
miralty. These  official  records  show  that  the 
Lutine  was  under  orders  to  sail,  not  to  the  Texel, 
but  to  the  river  Elbe,  her  destination  being  Ham- 
burg, and  that  the  treasure  on  board  was  not  the 
property  of  the  British  government,  but  of  a  number 
of  London  merchants  connected  with  Lloyd's,  and 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       295 

that  the  business  of  sending  the  coin  and  bullion  was 
purely  commercial. 

The  records  wholly  fail  to  explain  how  it  happened 
that,  sailing  for  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  the  Lutine 
commanded  by  an  able  and  experienced  officer,  and 
in  all  respects  well  manned  and  found,  came  to  be 
driven,  within  eighteen  hours  after  leaving  Yarmouth 
Roads,  upon  the  dangerous  shoals  of  the  Zuyder 
Zee,  far  out  of  her  course,  even  when  every  allow- 
ance is  made  for  the  strength  of  a  northwesterly 
gale. 

Another  mystery  of  the  voyage  of  this  thirty-two 
gun  frigate  of  the  royal  navy  is  her  employment  as 
a  mere  packet,  carrying  cash  and  bullion  for  the  bene- 
fit of  private  individuals.  The  officer  responsible 
for  sending  the  Lutine  on  this  unusual  errand  was 
Admiral  Lord  Duncan  who  "received  a  pressing  in- 
vitation from  some  merchants  to  convey  a  quantity 
of  bullion."  It  was  his  first  intention  to  dispatch 
a  cutter,  but  the  treasure  given  in  his  care  was 
swelled  by  larger  amounts  until  its  total  value  was 
£1,175,000  or  more  than  five  and  a  half  million  dol- 
lars. The  admiral  thereupon  discarded  the  cutter 
and  selected  instead  the  swift  and  staunch  Lutine 
frigate,  one  of  the  best  vessels  of  his  fleet.  On  Octo- 
ber 9,  he  wrote  to  the  Admiralty  from  on  board  his 
flagship,  the  Kent,  in  Yarmouth  Roads : 

"The  merchants  interested  in  making  remittances 
to  the  continent  for  the  support  of  their  credit,  hav- 
ing made  application  to  me  for  a  King's  ship  to 
carry  over  a  considerable  sum  of  money,  on  account 
of  there  being  no  Packet  for  that  purpose,  I  have  com- 
plied with  their  request,  and  ordered  the  Lutine 
to  Cuxhaven  with  the  same,  together  with  the  mails 
lying  there  for  want  of  conveyance;  directing  Cap- 


296         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

tain  Skynner  to  proceed  to  Stromness  immediately 
after  doing  so,  to  take  under  his  protection  the  Hud- 
son's  Bay's  ships  and  see  them  in  safety  to  the 
Nore."  When  this  letter  was  written,  the  Lutine 
had  already  sailed,  and  before  Lord  Duncan's  com- 
munication reached  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  the 
splendid  treasure  laden  frigate  had  laid  her  bones 
on  the  sand  banks  of  Holland. 

Admiral  Duncan  appears  to  have  escaped  all  cen- 
sure for  this  disaster  which  followed  his  action  taken 
without  consultation  and  without  waiting  for  the  ap- 
proval of  his  superiors.  The  merchants  of  London 
were  powerful  enough  to  command  the  services  of 
the  navy,  and  English  credit  was  needed  on  the  con- 
tinent to  buttress  English  arms  and  statesmanship. 
With  her  millions  of  treasure  and  hundreds  of  lives, 
the  Lutine  drove  straight  toward  as  fatal  a  coast 
to  shipping  as  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world. 

It  is  a  coast  which  is  neither  sea  nor  land,  strewn 
with  wrecks,  and  with  somber  memories  even  more 
tragic.  Where  is  now  the  entrance  of  the  Zuyder 
Zee  was  unbroken  terra  firma  until  the  thirteenth 
century  when  a  terrible  hurricane  piled  the  North 
Sea  through  the  isthmus  separating  it  from  the 
large  lake  called  Vlies  by  the  natives.  A  wide  chan- 
nel was  cut  by  this  inroad,  and  in  1287  the  North 
Sea  scoured  for  itself  a  second  inlet  at  the  cost  of 
a  hundred  thousand  human  lives.  Ever  since  then, 
the  channels  have  been  multiplying  and  shifting  un- 
til what  was  once  the  coast  line  has  become  a  maze 
of  islands  and  sand-banks,  the  Texel,  Vlieland, 
Terschelling,  Ameland,  and  hundreds  of  lesser  ones 
which  confuse  even  the  mariners  born  and  bred 
among  them. 

With  a  wind  which  should  have  enabled  him  to  give 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       297 

this  perilous  shore  a  wide  berth  and  to  keep  to  his 
course  up  the  North  Sea,  Captain  Skynner  plunged 
into  a  death-trap  from  which  there  was  no  escape. 
The  sole  survivor  could  give  no  coherent  account, 
and  he  died  while  on  the  way  to  England  before  his 
shattered  nerves  had  mended.  There  was  no  more 
frigate,  and  as  for  the  hundreds  of  drowned  sailors, 
they  had  been  obliterated  as  a  day's  work  in  the 
business  of  a  great  navy,  so  the  Admiralty  left  the 
mourning  to  their  kinfolk  and  bestirred  itself  about 
that  five  and  a  half  million  dollars'  worth  of  treas- 
ure which  the  sea  could  not  harm.  Vice-Admiral 
Mitchell  was  informed  by  letter  that  "their  lordships 
feel  great  concern  at  this  very  unfortunate  acci- 
dent" and  he  was  directed  to  take  such  measures 
as  might  be  practicable  for  recovering  the  stores 
of  the  Lutine,  as  well  as  the  property  on  board, 
"being  for  the  benefit  of  the  persons  to  whom  it 
belongs." 

The  underwriters  of  Lloyd's  with  an  eye  to  sal- 
vage, were  even  more  prompt  than  the  Admiralty  in 
sending  agents  to  the  scene  of  the  wreck.  The 
greater  part  of  the  immense  amount  of  coin  and 
bullion  had  been  fully  insured,  a  transaction  which 
indicates  the  stability  and  ample  resources  of  this 
association  as  far  away  in  time  as  1799.  The  loss 
was  paid  in  full  and  with  such  promptitude  that  only 
two  weeks  after  the  disaster,  the  Committee  for 
managing  the  concerns  of  Lloyd's  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty  in  which  was  re- 
quested "the  favor  of  Mr.  Nepean  to  lay  before  the 
Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  the  informa- 
tion that  a  sum  of  money,  equal  to  that  unfortunately 
lost  in  the  Lutine,  is  going  off  this  night  for  Hambro, 
and  they  trust  their  Lordships  will  direct  such  steps 


298         THE  BOOK  OF  BUKIED  TREASURE 

as  they  think  expedient  for  its  protection  to  be 
taken. ' ' 

The  request  was  granted  somewhat  grudgingly. 
Apparently  the  Admiralty  regretted  the  employment 
of  one  of  its  frigates  as  a  merchantman.  Admiral 
Lord  Duncan  was  directed  to  send  a  convoy  this 
time,  but  was  told  also  "to  let  them  know  that  their 
lordships  have  done  so  in  this  particular  case;  but 
that  they  must  not  expect  the  packets  can  again  be 
convoyed."  With  this  letter  ends  all  reference  to 
the  Lutine  and  her  treasure  in  the  correspondence 
preserved  in  the  Eecord  Office  of  the  Admiralty. 

Having  paid  their  losses,  like  the  good  sportsmen 
that  they  were,  the  underwriters  of  Lloyd's  thereby 
clinched  their  right  to  the  ownership  of  the  treasure, 
provided  they  could  find  it.  The  situation  was  com- 
plicated because  England  was  at  that  time  at  war 
with  the  Netherlands  whose  government  claimed  the 
wreck  as  a  prize,  although  inconsistently  refusing 
to  let  it  be  adjudicated  by  a  prize  court.  On  this 
account,  Lloyd's  could  make  no  attempt  to  fish  for 
the  treasure,  which  delay  was  very  much  to  the  bene- 
fit of  the  sturdy  Dutch  fishermen  of  the  islands  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Zuyder  Zee.  The  sands  and  the 
surf  held  a  golden  harvest.  The  wreck  of  the  Lu- 
tine was  partly  exposed  at  low  ebb  tide,  and  a  chan- 
nel ran  close  to  the  side  of  the  ship. 

The  clumsy  fishing  boats  or  "showts"  swarmed 
to  the  place  and  never  was  there  such  easy  wealth 
for  honest  Dutchmen.  Their  government  soon  put 
a  watch  on  them  and  took  two-thirds  of  the  findings, 
giving  the  fishermen  the  remainder.  They  toiled  in 
good  weather  for  a  year  and  a  half,  and  recovered 
treasure   to  the  amount  of  eighty-three  thousand 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       299 

pounds  sterling.  The  official  inventory  reads  like 
the  hoard  of  a  buccaneer,  including  as  it  does  such 
romantic  items  as : 

58  bars  of  gold,  weight  646  lbs.  23  ounces. 

35  bars  of  silver,  weight,  1,758  lbs.  8  ounces. 

41,697  Spanish  silver  pistoles. 

179  Spanish  gold  pistoles. 

81  Double  Louis  d'or. 

138  Single  Louis  d'or. 

4  English  guineas. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  1801  the  fishermen  quit 
their  task,  thinking  they  had  found  all  the  treasure. 
For  a  dozen  years  the  Dutch  forgot  the  melancholy 
fragments  of  the  Lutine,  while  the  sailors  of  the 
desolate  islands  guarding  the  Zuyder  Zee  began  to 
weave  superstitious  legends  around  the  "gold 
wreck."  In  the  midst  of  the  crowded  events  of  the 
great  war  against  Napoleon,  England  found  no  time 
to  remember  the  Lutine,  and  her  memory  was  kept 
alive  only  by  the  kinfolk  of  the  drowned  officers  and 
sailors. 

After  Napoleon  had  been  finally  disposed  of,  the 
treasure  was  recalled  to  public  notice  by  an  ingenious 
gentleman  of  the  Netherlands,  Pierre  Eschauzier,  a 
sort  of  lord  of  the  manor  under  the  government,  hold- 
ing the  post  of  "Opper  Strand  vonder,"  or  "Upper 
Strand  finder,"  who  lived  at  Terschelling  and  took 
a  lively  interest  in  the  wreck.  After  a  great  deal 
of  investigation  and  cogitation,  he  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  greater  part  of  the  treasure  dis- 
patched from  England  in  the  Lutine  was  still  hidden 
among  her  timbers.  His  argument  was  based  on 
the  fact  that  the  bars  of  silver  and  gold  already  re- 
covered were  stamped  with  certain  numbers  and  let- 


300         ,THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ters  indicating  series  or  sequences,  and  that  thns 
far  these  were  very  incomplete. 

For  instance,  among  the  gold  bars  previously 
found,  were  thirteen  marked  with  the  letters  NB,  in 
three  separate  lots;  the  first  numbered  from  58  to 
64 ;  the  second  from  86  to  90 ;  and  the  third  from  87 
to  89.  Other  gold  bars  with  different  letters  and  a 
variety  of  numbers  went  to  prove  that  there  were  a 
hundred  numbers  to  each  letter,  which  would  yield 
a  total  of  six  hundred  gold  bars,  of  which  only  thirty- 
one  had  been  recovered  in  the  years  1800  and  1801. 

The  government  of  the  Netherlands  was  duly  im- 
pressed by  the  calculations  of  Mr.  Eschauzier  who 
had  proved  himself  such  an  astute  ''Upper  Strand 
finder,"  and  he  was  granted  a  sum  by  royal  decree 
from  the  public  exchequer  to  equip  a  salvage  expe- 
dition. Alas,  the  pretty  theory  was  thwarted  by  the 
implacable  sands  which  had  buried  the  wreck.  For 
seven  years  this  indefatigable  treasure  seeker 
dredged  and  dug,  and  found  no  more  than  a  few  gold 
coin.  Then  he  decided  to  try  a  diving  bell,  King 
Willem  I  having  bestowed  upon  him  a  more  favor- 
able privilege  by  the  terms  of  which  the  salvage  com- 
pany was  to  have  one-half  of  the  treasure  recovered. 

The  diving  bell  was  no  luckier  than  the  dredges 
had  been.  In  fact,  by  this  time  the  unstable  sands 
had  so  concealed  the  wreck  that  it  could  not  be  found. 
After  vainly  groping  for  several  months,  the  luckless 
"Upper  Strand  finder"  confessed  himself  beaten, 
and  there  was  nothing  to  show  for  an  expenditure  of 
five  thousand  pounds  sterling.  These  operations 
had  made  some  noise  in  London,  however,  and  the 
underwriters  of  Lloyd's  remembered  that  they  had 
an  interest  in  the  wreck  of  the  Lutine  frigate.  If 
there  was  still  treasure  to  be  sought  for,  it  belonged 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       301 

to  them,  and  the  government  of  the  Netherlands  had 
no  claim  upon  it,  either  in  law  or  equity. 

The  fact  that  royal  decrees  had  been  granting  to 
Dutchmen  that  which  did  not  belong  to  them  at  all, 
aroused  indignation  at  Lloyd's,  whose  managing 
committee  was  moved  to  address  the  English  gov- 
ernment in  the  matter.  After  a  good  deal  of  diplo- 
matic palaver  with  The  Hague,  that  government 
made  over  its  half  share  of  the  treasure  reserved 
under  the  treaty  with  "the  Upper  Strand  finder"  to 
the  "British  claimants."  In  May  6,  1823,  Mr.  F. 
Conyngham,  Secretary  of  the  English  Foreign  Office, 
communicated  this  pleasing  news  to  Mr.  William 
Bell,  chairman  of  the  committee  of  Lloyd's  in  the 
following  letter: 

"Sir: 

''With  reference  to  the  several  applications  which  have 
been  made  to  His  Majesty's  Government  to  interfere  with 
that  of  the  Netherlands  on  behalf  of  the  underwriters,  and 
others,  claiming  to  be  allowed  to  recover  certain  property 
still  supposed  to  remain  on  board  of  the  Lutine  Frigate, 
lost  off  the  coast  of  Holland  in  1799,  I  am  directed  by 
Mr.  Secretary  Canning  to  acquaint  you,  for  the  informa- 
tion of  the  parties  concerned,  that  after  much  negotiation 
His  Netherlands'  Majesty  has  expressed  his  willingness  to 
cede  to  the  British  claimants  the  whole  of  that  moiety  of 
the  said  property  which  by  His  Netherlands'  Majesty's 
decree  of  the  14th.  September,  1821,  was  reserved  for  the 
use  of  his  said  Majesty.  The  other  moiety  was,  by  the 
same  decree,  granted  in  the  nature  of  salvage  to  a  private 
company  of  his  own  subjects,  who  undertook  to  recover 
the  cargo  at  their  own  expense.  It  has  been  stipulated 
that  the  British  claimants  shall  be  at  liberty  to  concert 
with  the  said  company  as  to  the  best  mode  of  effecting 
that  recovery.  Considering  the  difficulties  which  the  ne- 
gotiation has   experienced  from   disputed  points   of  law, 


302         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

and  making  due  allowance  for  the  engagements  formed 
with  the  Dutch  company,  who  have  been  recognized  as 
salvors  by  the  Dutch  law,  and  would  have  a  right  to  have 
all  services  rewarded  in  the  Courts  of  Holland  for  the 
property  which  may  be  saved  by  their  exertions,  Mr.  Can- 
ning apprehends  that  it  may  be  advisable  for  the  claimants 
in  this  country  to  agree  to  the  offer  now  made.  The  season 
for  operation  is  now  before  them,  and  no  hope  could  be 
reasonably  entertained  that  a  renewal  of  the  negotiation 
would  bring  the  matter  to  a  more  reasonable  close. ' ' 

It  will  be  observed  that  diplomacy  had  obtained 
for  Lloyd's  only  a  half -interest  in  its  own  wreck. 
The  other  fifty  per  cent,  still  belonged  to  Mr. 
Eschauzier's  company,  as  King  Willem  was  par- 
ticular to  make  clear  in  his  decree,  dated  from  Het 
Loo,  which  went  on  to  say:  "By  our  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  we  have  offered  to  the  King  of 
Great  Britain  to  cede  to  his  Majesty  all  that  which 
by  our  decree  of  the  14th  of  September,  1821,  was 
reserved  to  the  Netherlands  in  the  bottom  in  ques- 
tion and  the  cargo  therein,  doing  so  solely  as  a  proof 
of  our  friendly  feeling  towards  the  Kingdom  of 
Great  Britain,  and  in  nowise  from  a  conviction  of 
the  right  of  England  to  any  portion  of  the  said 
cargo.     .     .    . 

1 '  We  have  been  pleased  and  thought  fit : 

"1.  To  cede  to  His  Majesty  of  Great  Britain  all 
that  which  by  our  decree  of  the  4th  September,  1821, 
was  reserved  in  favor  of  the  kingdom  relative  to 
the  cargo  of  the  frigate  Lutine. 

"2.  To  instruct  our  minister  of  inland  affairs  and 
the  maritime  department — "Water  Staat — to  give  no- 
tice of  this  our  decree,  as  well  as  of  the  cession  made 
on  the  part  of  His  Majesty  of  Great  Britain  to  the 
Society  of  Lloyd's,  to  our  chancellor  of  state,  gov- 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       303 

ernor  of  North  Holland,  and  to  the  other  authorities 
concerned,  as  well  as  to  the  participators  in  the 
undertaking  of  1821  in  the  Netherlands,  and  to  in- 
form them  likewise  that  an  English  agent  will  ere 
long  wait  upon  them,  in  order  to  make  all  such  ar- 
rangements with  them  as  may  be  deemed  advisable 
for  the  furtherance  of  their  mutual  interests.  And 
our  Ministers  for  Inland  Affairs  and  the  Maritime 
Department  are  charged  with  the  carrying  out  of 
this  decree. " 

The  members  of  Lloyd's  were  hardly  better  off 
with  the  gift  of  one-half  a  wreck  than  they  had  been 
with  no  wreck  at  all.  Before  undertaking  any  sal- 
vage operations  they  must  come  to  some  kind  of  an 
understanding  with  the  ' '  Upper  Strand  Finder ' '  and 
his  partners,  with  respect  to  expenses  and  profits. 
The  Dutch,  with  proverbial  caution,  were  reluctant 
to  scrape  acquaintance  with  the  English  owners, 
convinced  that  in  some  matter  or  other,  this  new 
ownership  in  the  treasure  had  been  unfairly  extorted 
from  their  government  at  the  Hague.  It  was  not 
until  1830,  that  friendly  relations  were  established, 
and  in  the  meantime  Mr.  Eschauzier  had  died,  leav- 
ing his  share  in  the  treasure  among  his  legacies. 

Then  negotiations  were  interrupted  by  the  polit- 
ical events  which  caused  the  separation  of  Belgium 
from  Holland.  The  people  of  the  Netherlands 
heartily  hated  England  for  her  leading  part  in  this 
partition,  and  not  even  the  allurement  of  fishing  gold 
out  of  the  sea  could  persuade  the  Dutch  adventurers 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  Lloyd's  or  anything 
that  smacked  of  the  perfidious  English.  For  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  the  wreck  of  the  Lutine  was 
undisturbed.  Then,  in  1846,  two  enterprising  Eng- 
lish divers  in  need  of  work,  Hill  and  Downs  by  name, 


304         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

conceived  an  audacious  scheme  to  enrich  themselves. 
They  drew  up  a  petition  to  the  King  of  the  Nether- 
lands, asking  that  they  be  permitted  to  pick  up  as 
much  gold  as  they  could  lay  hands  on  among  the 
timbers  of  the  Lutine.  Surprising  as  was  this  re- 
quest, it  was  not  refused.  According  to  custom,  the 
petition  was  carefully  examined  at  The  Hague,  and 
the  discovery  was  gravely  announced  that  there  was 
no  legal  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  divers,  or  anyone 
else,  who  cared  to  seek  for  the  Lutine' 's  treasure. 

One  of  the  articles  of  a  new  code  of  maritime  law, 
passed  by  the  States  General  of  the  Netherlands  in 
1838,  provided  that  the  salvage  of  vessels  wrecked 
1  *  on  the  outer  banks  of  the  coast, ' '  was  thrown  open 
to  all  persons,  under  stipulated  conditions,  and  that 
the  wreck  of  the  Lutine  came  within  this  act.  The 
government  formally  notified  Hill  and  Downs  that 
while  the  right  of  salvage  could  not  be  granted  to 
any  particular  person,  the  ground  was  free  on  con- 
dition that ' '  one-half  of  all  that  might  be  found  must 
be  given  up  to  Lloyd's." 

The  divers  may  have  found  some  other  employ- 
ment by  this  time,  for  they  appeared  not  at  the 
wreck,  but  the  publication  of  the  proceedings  awoke 
the  old  Dutch  company  formed  by  the  "Upper 
Strand  Finder"  and  they  opened  negotiations  with 
the  committee  of  Lloyd's.  No  one  concerned  seemed 
to  be  in  a  hurry  to  find  the  several  million  dollars 
remaining  in  the  Lutine  and  nine  more  years 
dragged  past  before  a  working  agreement  was 
signed  between  the  two  parties.  The  Dutch  com- 
pany undertook  to  carry  on  the  work  of  salvage, 
paying  over  one-half  the  gross  proceeds  to  Lloyd's. 

It  was  in  1857  that  the  Dutch  went  to  work,  and 
after   a   month   of   exploration   the    Secretary  of 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       305 

Lloyd's  received  this  pleasing  information  from  his 
agent  at  the  Texel : 

"I  feel  most  happy  to  inform  you  that  the  new 
efforts  to  save  the  value  out  of  the  Lutine  have  not 
been  without  success.  Yesterday  there  was  re- 
covered by  means  of  divers  and  pincers,  13  silver 
coins,  being  Spanish  piastres,  1  gold  Louis  d'or,  5 
brass  hoops  and  casks,  and  a  quantity  of  cannon 
and  shot. 

"Considering  the  value  of  the  saved  objects,  it 
may  not  be  of  much  signification;  but  the  salvage 
itself  is  of  very  great  importance,  as  it  proves  two 
facts,  namely,  first,  that  the  wreck  of  the  Lutine  has 
really  been  found,  and  secondly,  that  there  is  specie 
still  in  the  wreck.  As  soon  as  anything  more  is 
picked  up,  I  will  inform  you  immediately  thereof. 
Be  assured,  I  have  taken  the  necessary  steps  to  se- 
cure the  interests  of  Lloyd's  committee,  as  owners 
of  the  treasure,  which  we  hope  may  entirely  be 
saved." 

A  little  later,  the  wreck  was  found  to  be  very  little 
scattered  and  its  precise  location  was  determined. 
The  news  of  the  discovered  "gold  wreck"  spread 
among  the  fishermen  of  the  Zuyder  Zee  and  the 
German  Ocean  and  they  winged  it  to  the  scene  until 
"there  were  sixty-eight  large  and  well  manned 
boats  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  looking  for 
plunder."  At  this  threatening  mobilization,  the 
Dutch  government  thought  it  wise  to  send  a  gun- 
boat with  a  party  of  soldiers  on  board. 

In  the  summer  of  1858,  the  divers  brought  to  the 
surface  the  bell  of  the  frigate,  which  now  rests  in 
the  committee  room  of  Lloyd 's  with  the  other  relics. 
The  Lutine  had  been  one  of  the  crack  ships  of  the 
French  navy  and  was  captured  by  Admiral  Duncan, 


306         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

lie  who  sent  her  to  her  doom.  The  bell  bears  on  its 
bronze  side  the  royal  crown  and  arms  of  Bour- 
bon, and  on  the  rim  the  name  of  "Saint  Jean"  un- 
der whose  protection  the  ship  and  her  crew  had  been 
placed  when  she  was  launched  as  a  fighting  frigate 
of  His  Majesty,  Louis  XVI  of  France. 

The  treasure  seeking  was  continued  for  several 
years,  whenever  the  treacherous  sea  permitted,  until, 
at  length,  a  great  gale  out  of  the  northwest  closed 
the  channel  near  the  wreck  and  covered  her  deeper 
under  the  sands.  The  work  was  finally  abandoned 
by  these  salvors  in  1861.  They  had  forwarded  to 
England  for  the  benefit  of  Lloyd's  a  total  amount  of 
£22,162,  to  show  that  the  undertaking  had  been 
worth  while.  In  the  Act  of  Incorporation  of  Lloyd's 
granted  by  Parliament  in  1871,  the  treasure  re- 
covered, as  well  as  that  still  left  in  the  wreck,  was 
carefully  referred  to,  and  it  was  stated  that  "the 
Society  may  from  time  to  time  do,  or  join  in  doing 
all  such  lawful  things  as  they  think  expedient,  with 
a  view  to  further  salving  from  the  wreck  of  the 
Lutine." 

It  seems  rather  extraordinary  that  the  exact 
amount  of  the  treasure  lost  in  the  frigate  should 
be  a  matter  of  conjecture,  and  that  the  records  of 
Lloyd's  throw  no  light  on  this  point.  The  explana- 
tion is  that  only  part  of  the  precious  cargo  was  in- 
sured by  the  underwriters  then  doing  business  in 
the  Royal  Exchange  building,  and  that  a  large 
amount  of  gold  coin  and  bullion  was  hastily  for- 
warded to  the  Lutine  by  divers  bankers  and  mer- 
chants shortly  before  sailing.  The  records  of  these 
consignments  were,  of  course,  scattered  and  have 
long  since  been  lost. 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  LUTINE  FRIGATE       307 

The  total  amount  lost  has  been  quite  accurately 
calculated  by  employing  the  system  of  accounting 
devised  by  the  "Upper  Strand  Finder."  His 
theory  was  verified  by  later  undertakings  at  the 
wreck,  and  the  sequences  of  letters  and  numbers 
stamped  upon  the  gold  and  silver  bars  were  found 
to  run  in  regular  order,  so  that  it  has  been  latterly 
assumed  that,  in  all,  one  thousand  of  these  were  in 
the  ship's  hold.  The  figures  accepted  by  the  Dutch 
partners  in  the  enterprise,  and  endorsed  by  Mr. 
John  Mavor  Hill,  the  agent  of  Lloyd's  at  Amster- 
dam, were  as  follows : 

Salvage  in  the  years  1800  and  1801 £     55,770 

"     "       "       1857  and  1858 39,203 

11     "       "       1859    to    1861 4,920 

Total   salvage £     99,893 

Total  treasure  estimated  to  have  been  lost £1,175,000 

Treasure  remaining  in  the  wreck £1,076,107 

It  is  plausible  to  assume,  therefore,  that  more 
than  five  million  dollars  in  gold  and  silver  are  still 
buried  in  the  sands  of  the  island  beach  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  Zuyder  Zee,  and  that  at  any  time 
strong  gales  and  shifting  currents  may  once  more 
uncover  the  bones  of  the  ill-fated  Lutine  frigate. 
The  members  of  Lloyd's  are  daily  reminded,  by  the 
presence  of  the  massive  oaken  table  and  chair  and 
the  silent  ship's  bell  in  the  Committee  Room,  of  the 
princely  fortune  that  is  theirs,  if  they  can  find  it. 
The  story  is  a  romance  of  maritime  insurance,  and 
the  end  has  not  yet  been  written,  for  with  modern 


308         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

equipment  and  ingenuity  those  gold  and  silver  bars, 
Spanish  pistoles,  and  Louis  d'or  may  some  day  be 
carried  up  the  staircase  of  Lloyd's  to  enrich  a  cor- 
poration of  the  twentieth  century. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS 

The  Lutine  was  not  the  only  treasure-laden  frig- 
ate lost  by  the  British  navy.  The  circumstances  of 
the  wreck  of  the  Thetis  in  1830  are  notable,  not  so 
much  for  the  gold  and  silver  that  went  down  in  her, 
as  for  the  heroic  courage  and  bulldog  persistence  of 
the  men  who  toiled  to  recover  the  treasure.  Their 
battle  against  odds  was  an  epic  in  the  annals  of  sal- 
vage. They  were  treasure-seekers  whose  deeds,  for- 
gotten by  this  generation,  and  grudgingly  rewarded 
by  their  own,  were  highly  worthy  of  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  their  flag  and  their  race. 

On  the  morning  of  December  4th  of  the  year  men- 
tioned, the  forty-six  gun  frigate  Thetis,  with  a  com- 
plement of  three  hundred  men,  sailed  from  Rio 
Janeiro,  homeward  bound.  As  a  favor  to  various 
merchants  of  the  South  American  coast  who  were 
fearful  of  the  pirates  that  still  lurked  in  the  West 
Indies,  her  captain  had  taken  on  board  for  consign- 
ment to  London,  a  total  amount  of  $810,000  in  gold 
and  silver  bars.  During  the  evening  of  the  second 
night  at  sea,  the  ship  was  running  at  ten  and  a  half 
knots,  with  studding-sails  set,  and  plenty  of  offing, 
by  the  reckoning  of  the  deck  officers.  The  look- 
out stationed  on  the  cat-head  had  no  more  than  bel- 
lowed "Breakers  under  the  bow!"  when  his  comrade 
echoed  it  with,  "Rocks  above  the  mast-head." 

An  instant  later,  the  soaring  bowsprit  of  the  frig- 

309 


310         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ate  splintered  with,  a  tremendous  crash  against  the 
sheer  cliffs  of  Cape  Frio.  The  charging  vessel 
fetched  up  all  standing.  Her  hull  had  not  touched 
bottom  and  there  was  nothing  to  check  her  enormous 
momentum.  In  a  twinkling,  literally  in  the  space  of 
a  few  seconds,  her  three  masts  were  ripped  out  and 
fell  on  deck  with  all  their  hamper,  killing  and  wound- 
ing many  of  the  crew.  Instead  of  that  most  beauti- 
ful sight  in  all  the  world,  a  ship  under  full  sail  and 
running  free,  there  was  a  helpless  hulk  pounding  out 
her  life  against  the  perpendicular  wall  of  rock.  The 
catastrophe  befell  so  suddenly  that  when  Captain 
Burgess  rushed  from  his  cabin  at  the  warning  shout, 
the  masts  tumbled  just  as  he  reached  the  quarter- 
deck. 

"No  description  can  realize  the  awful  state  of  the 
ill-fated  ship  and  all  on  board  at  this  appalling 
moment;  the  night  was  rainy  and  so  dark  that  it 
was  impossible  to  ascertain  their  position,  beyond 
the  fact  of  their  being  repeatedly  driven  with  tre- 
mendous force  against  cliffs  of  a  stupendous  height 
above  them,  and  consequently  inaccessible,  and  not 
offering  the  slightest  chance  of  escape;  the  upper 
deck  of  the  ship,  the  only  part  in  which  exertion 
could  be  useful,  was  completely  choked  up  with 
masts,  sails,  and  rigging,  which  presented  obstacles 
that  rendered  unavailing  every  attempt  at  active  ex- 
ertion; while  the  ears  of  all,  who  were  of  course 
using  their  utmost  endeavors  for  the  general  safety, 
were  pierced  by  the  cries  of  the  dying  and  wounded 
for  the  assistance  which  the  imperious  calls  of  duty 
forbade  them  to  give.  Nothing  but  inevitable  de- 
struction presented  itself  to  all  on  board;  and  their 
perfectly  helpless  state  rendered  all  deliberation 
useless;  and  indeed  there  was  no  choice  of  meas- 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  311 

ures,  no  point  on  which  to  offer  an  opinion,  and  they 
could  only  await  such  means  as  Providence  might 
present."  1 

As  by  a  miracle,  the  bowsprit  and  yard-arms  had 
so  checked  the  speed  of  the  frigate,  acting  as  a  sort 
of  buffer,  that  her  hull  was  not  smashed  like  an  egg- 
shell but  was  found  to  be  fairly  tight.  All  of  the 
boats  had  been  smashed  by  the  falling  spars,  and 
the  wretched  company  could  only  hang  fast  and  pray 
that  the  wreck  might  float  until  daylight.  But  the 
hammering  seas  soon  caused  her  to  leak  through 
yawning  seams,  and  despairing  of  keeping  her  from 
sinking,  a  few  of  the  crew  managed  to  reach  a  shelv- 
ing projection  of  rock  about  twenty  feet  above  the 
deck.  It  was  a  forlorn  hope,  so  perilous  to  attempt 
that  many  of  those  who  scrambled  for  a  foothold  fell 
between  the  ship  and  the  cliff  and  were  drowned 
or  crushed  to  death. 

Presently  the  hulk  swung  away  from  the  face  of 
the  cliff  and  was  driven  a  distance  of  a  third  of  a 
mile  along  the  coast  and  into  a  tiny  cove  or  notch  in 
the  bold  headlands  of  Cape  Frio.  Here  she  re- 
mained, now  sinking  very  fast.  The  party  who  had 
succeeded  in  making  a  landing  on  the  ledge  clawed 
their  way  to  the  rescue,  following  the  drifting  ship, 
and  with  the  hardihood  and  agility  of  British  tars 
of  the  old  breed,  they  made  their  way  down  the  de- 
clivity like  so  many  cats  and  succeeded  in  making 
fast  to  a  rope  thrown  by  their  comrades  on  board. 
By  this  means,  several  men  had  been  hauled  to 

iThe  matter  quoted  in  this  chapter  is  from  the  privately  printed 
account  by  Captain  Dickinson  (London,  1836),  entitled,  "A  Nar- 
rative of  the  Operations  for  the  Recovery  of  the  Public  Stores  and 
Treasure  sunk  in  H.M.S.  Thetis,  at  Cape  Frio  on  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
on  the  Fifth  December,  1830,  to  which  is  prefixed  a  Concise  Account 
of  the  Loss  of  that  Ship." 


312         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

safety  when  the  dying  frigate  lurched  wildly  and 
parted  the  hawser. 

It  was  discovered  that  she  now  rested  on  the  bot- 
tom. Part  of  the  port  bulwark,  the  hammock-net- 
tings, the  taffrail,  and  the  stumps  of  the  masts 
remained  above  water,  and  to  these  the  crew  clung 
while  the  surf  roared  over  their  heads  and  threat- 
ened to  tear  them  away.  The  situation  was  now 
hopeless,  indeed,  but  all  left  alive  on  board  were 
saved  by  the  daring  and  strength  of  one  man,  Boat- 
swain Geach.  He  fought  his  way  through  the  break- 
ers to  the  stump  of  the  bowsprit,  lashed  himself 
there,  and  succeeded  in  passing  a  line  to  his  com- 
rades on  shore.  A  strong  rope  was  then  hauled  up 
and  one  by  one  the  men  on  board  were  slung  to 
safety  upon  the  cliffs.  Almost  all  the  survivors 
were  dreadfully  bruised  and  lacerated. 

When  the  news  reached  Rio  Janeiro,  the  British 
sloop-of-war  Lightning  was  in  that  port,  and  her 
commander,  Captain  Thomas  Dickinson,  was  the  sort 
of  man  who  likes  nothing  better  than  to  lead  a  for- 
lorn hope  and  grapple  with  difficulties.     Said  he: 

''The  consternation  occasioned  by  the  dreadful 
catastrophe  was  not  confined  to  naval  persons,  but 
was  universally  felt  at  Eio,  particularly  among  mer- 
cantile people,  since  from  the  tenor  of  the  letter,  and 
the  description  given  by  the  officer  who  brought  it, 
the  ship  and  everything  she  contained  were  consid- 
ered as  totally  lost.  The  event  became  a  matter 
of  general  conversation;  but  while  everyone  de- 
plored it,  I  did  not  hear  of  any  who  seemed  disposed 
to  venture  on  an  attempt  to  recover  the  property,  all 
appearing  to  consider  the  case  as  perfectly  hope- 
less. .  .  .  Here  was  an  undertaking  which,  if 
successful,  would  assuredly  lead  to  professional  rep- 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  313 

utation  and  fortune,  but  which  everyone  whom  I 
addressed  on  the  subject  thought  must  fail.  Still, 
the  scarcity  of  the  opportunities  of  obtaining  dis- 
tinction and  credit,  by  an  extraordinary  act  of  duty, 
which  present  themselves  to  officers  in  these  piping 
times  of  peace,  offered  a  consideration  which  pre- 
vailed, and  I  determined  on  making  the  attempt,  if 
I  could  get  orders  from  the  Commander-in-Chief  to 
that  effect." 

The  admiral  of  the  station  proceeded  to  Cape  Frio 
with  a  squadron  of  five  vessels,  and  after  a  careful 
study  of  the  situation  of  the  wreck  concluded  that  it 
would  be  futile  to  try  to  recover  any  of  the  sunken 
treasure.  In  the  face  of  this  verdict,  Captain  Dick- 
inson felt  reluctant  to  press  his  own  views,  but  the 
bee  in  his  bonnet  would  not  be  denied.  ''Actuated, 
however,  by  the  same  feelings  which  had  at  first 
prompted  me  to  hazard  the  attempt,  and  having  a 
natural  repugnance  to  receding  after  having,  during 
my  inquiries,  disclosed  my  views  very  freely,  I  was 
resolved  to  persevere.  During  the  absence  of  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  I  constantly  employed  myself 
in  inquiring  for  any  persons  likely  to  assist  me, 
searching  for  implements,  and  obtaining  all  the  in- 
formation within  my  reach,  and  devised  several  in- 
struments of  minor  importance  which  appeared  likely 
to  be  useful.  On  his  return  from  Cape  Frio,  I 
showed  these  to  him,  of  the  whole  of  which  he  ap- 
proved. ' ' 

Captain  Dickinson  could  find  no  diving  bell  in 
Kio,  so  this  versatile  officer  proceeded  to  make  one, 
and  an  extraordinary  contrivance  it  was  for  men 
to  risk  their  lives  in  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  From 
H.  M.  S.  Warspite,  one  of  the  squadron  in  harbor, 
he    obtained   two   iron   water   tanks.     These   were 


314         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

turned  over  to  an  English  mechanic  named  Moore, 
formerly  employed  by  the  Brazilian  government, 
who  was  assisted  by  the  carpenter  of  the  Lightning. 
Between  them  they  fashioned  the  water  tanks  into 
something  that  looked  like  a  diving  bell.  These 
capable  artisans  then  built  an  air  pump,  and  now 
they  were  shy  of  hose  through  which  to  force  air  to 
the  submerged  toilers. 

"Being  unable  to  find  a  workman  in  Eio  Janeiro 
who  would  undertake  to  make  an  air-tight  hose,"  ex- 
plains Captain  Dickinson,  "there  appeared  for  a 
time  to  be  a  stop  to  my  preparations ;  but  recollect- 
ing that  there  was  a  Truscott's  pump  on  board  the 
Lightning,  I  attempted  to  render  the  hoses  belong- 
ing to  it  fit  for  the  purpose,  and  to  my  great  delight 
succeeded,  by  first  beating  them  hard  with  a  broad- 
faced  hammer  to  render  the  texture  as  close  as  pos- 
sible, then  giving  them  a  good  coat  of  Stockholm 
tar,  afterwards  parceling  them  well  with  new  can- 
vas saturated  with  the  same  material,  and  finally 
serving  them  with  three-yarn  spun-yarns,  made  of 
new  yarns  and  well  twisted. 

"Having  thus  surmounted  without  assistance  the 
two  most  formidable  difficulties  that  had  yet  pre- 
sented themselves,  I  entertained  a  hope  that  my  own 
resources  would  prove  equally  available  on  future 
occasions;  and  hence  my  confidence  in  ultimate  suc- 
cess increased,  in  the  event  of  the  stores  and  treas- 
ure still  remaining  where  the  ship  was  lost.  My 
officers  and  crew  likewise  now  began  to  feel  a  great 
interest  in  all  that  was  doing ;  and  their  conduct  and 
expressions  afforded  me  a  happy  presage  that  their 
future  exertions  would  fulfill  my  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectations. ...  I  could  not  but  feel  that  the 
same  encouragement  was  not  afforded  by  some  from 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  315 

whom  I  had  most  reason  to  expect  both  it  and  assist- 
ance ;  for  although  I  had  now  been  for  six  weeks  en- 
gaged in  work,  drudging  on  in  the  double  capacity  of 
carpenter  and  blacksmith,  I  had  not  a  single  volun- 
tary offer  by  them  of  any  article  that  might  be  use- 
ful to  me.  Nor  was  the  kindness  of  my  friends  very 
encouraging;  for  they  almost  universally  endeav- 
ored to  dissuade  me  from  venturing  on  an  enter- 
prise which  everyone  considered  hopeless;  to  all  of 
which  remonstrances  my  only  reply  was,  that  my 
mind  was  made  up,  and  that  I  should  not  withdraw 
from  it." 

The  Lightning  sailed  to  begin  operations  at  Cape 
Frio  on  the  24th  of  January,  1831,  with  a  Brazilian 
launch  in  tow,  "and  La  Seine,  French  frigate,  in 
company,  going  to  visit  the  place  as  a  matter  of 
curiosity."  At  the  scene  of  the  wreck  were  found 
the  sloop  of  war  Algerine,  a  schooner  as  tender,  and 
a  complement  from  the  War  spite,  which  were  en- 
gaged in  saving  such  stores  and  spars  as  had 
drifted  ashore.  The  theater  of  Captain  Dickinson's 
ambition  as  a  treasure-seeker  was  hostile  and  for- 
bidding, a  coast  on  which  it  seemed  impossible  to 
tarry  except  in  the  most  favorable  weather.  As  he 
describes  it,  "the  island  of  Cape  Frio  is  about  three 
miles  long  and  one  in  breadth,  is  the  southeastern 
extremity  of  Brazil,  and  separated  from  the  main- 
land by  a  narrow  strait  or  gut  about  four  hundred 
feet  broad,  having  very  deep  water  in  it,  and 
through  which,  the  land  on  each  side  being  very  high, 
the  wind  constantly  rushes  in  heavy  gusts,  and  a 
rapid  current  runs.  This  island  is  entirely  moun- 
tainous, and  nearly  covered  with  an  almost  impen- 
etrable forest,  and  the  whole  coast  on  the  sea  side 
of  it  is  formed  by  precipitous  cliffs,  washed  by  very 


316         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

deep  water  close  to  the  shore;  and  on  the  harbor 
side,  with  the  exception  of  a  sandy  bay,  is  very  steep 
and  rugged.' ' 

The  little  notch  in  the  seaward  cliffs,  into  which 
the  frigate  had  been  driven,  was  named  Thetis 
Cove  by  Captain  Dickinson  who  explored  it  vainly 
for  traces  of  the  wrecked  hull.  Either  she  had  been 
washed  out  into  deep  water,  or  had  entirely  broken 
up.  Two  months  had  passed  since  the  disaster,  and 
the  only  way  of  trying  to  find  the  remains  of  the 
vessel  was  by  means  of  sounding  with  a  hand-lead 
until  the  diving  bell  could  be  rigged.  The  depth  of 
water  ranged  from  thirty-six  to  seventy  feet  at  the 
base  of  the  cliffs. 

This  cove  was  an  extraordinarily  difficult  place 
to  work  in,  there  being  no  beach  and  the  ramparts 
of  rock  towering  straight  from  the  water  to  heights 
of  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  feet.  Said 
Captain  Dickinson: 

"On  viewing  this  terrific  place,  with  the  knowl- 
edge that  at  the  time  of  the  shipwreck  the  wind  was 
from  the  southward,  I  was  struck  with  astonishment, 
and  it  appeared  quite  a  mystery  that  so  great  a 
number  of  lives  could  have  been  saved;  and  indeed 
it  will  never  cease  to  be  so,  for  that  part  at  which 
the  crew  landed  is  so  difficult  of  access,  that  (even 
in  fine  weather),  after  being  placed  by  a  boat  on 
the  rock  at  the  base,  it  required  considerable 
strength  and  agility,  with  the  assistance  of  a  man- 
rope,  to  climb  the  precipitous  face  of  the  cliff;  and 
I  am  certain  that  in  the  hour  of  extreme  peril,  when 
excess  of  exertion  was  called  forth,  there  must  have 
been  a  most  extraordinary  display  of  it  by  a  few  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole." 

Now,  this  make-shift  diving  bell  of  his  had  to  be 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  317 

suspended  from  something  in  order  to  be  raised  and 
lowered,  but  neither  his  own  ship,  the  Lightning, 
nor  any  of  the  other  vessels  of  the  salvage  fleet  could 
be  anchored  in  the  cove  to  serve  the  purpose  be- 
cause of  the  grave  danger  of  being  caught  on  a  lee 
shore.  At  first  Captain  Dickinson  planned  to 
stretch  a  cable  between  the  cliffs  on  either  side  of 
the  cove  but  this  was  found  to  be  impracticable. 
Thereupon  he  proceeded  to  fashion  a  huge  derrick 
from  which  the  diving  bell  should  hang  like  a  sinker 
at  the  end  of  a  fishing-rod.  There  was  no  timber 
on  the  cape  that  was  fit  to  be  worked  up  by  the  ship 
carpenters,  but  these  worthies,  Mr.  Batt  of  the  War- 
spite  and  Mr.  Daniel  Jones  of  the  Lightning ,  were 
not  to  be  daunted  by  such  a  trifling  matter  as  this. 
If  a  derrick  was  needed,  they  were  the  men  to  make 
it  out  of  nothing. 

What  they  did  was  to  assemble  the  broken  masts 
and  spars  that  had  drifted  ashore  from  the  wreck 
of  the  Thetis  and  patch  them  together  into  one  im- 
mense derrick  arm  which  with  its  gear  weighed  as 
much  as  forty  tons.  It  was  a  masterpiece  of  in- 
genuity and  seamanship  of  the  old-fashioned  school, 
such  as  can  no  longer  be  found  in  navies.  This 
breed  of  handy  man  at  sea  belonged  with  the  van- 
ished age  of  masts  and  canvas  and  "wooden  walls. " 

"Our  encampment  and  the  adjacent  parts  of  the 
island  now  presented  a  bustling,  and,  I  flattered 
myself,  a  rather  interesting  scene,"  wrote  the 
commander.  "There  were  parties  of  carpenters 
building  the  derrick,  making,  carrying  to  the  selected 
situations,  and  placing  the  securities  for  support- 
ing and  working  it.  Riggers  were  preparing  the 
gear  for  it,  sawyers  cutting  wood  for  various  pur- 
poses, rope-makers  making  lashing  and  seizing  stuff 


318         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

from  the  pieces  of  cable  crept 2  up  from  the  bottom, 
and  two  sets  of  blacksmiths  at  their  forges ;  those  of 
the  Warspite  making  hoops,  bolts,  and  nails,  from 
various  articles  which  had  been  crept  up ;  and  those 
of  the  Lightning  reducing  the  large  diving  bell  and 
constructing  a  smaller  one ;  five  gangs  of  excavators 
leveling  platforms  on  the  heights  above  the  cove, 
cutting  roads  to  lead  to  them,  and  fixing  bolts  in 
numerous  parts  of  the  faces  of  the  cliffs ;  some  were 
employed  in  felling  trees  and  cutting  grass  for  the 
huts  while  others  were  building  and  thatching  them ; 
water  carriers  were  passing  to  and  from  the  pool 
with  breakers  of  water;  and  the  officers  were  at- 
tending to  the  different  parties  assigned  to  them 
for  their  immediate  guidance." 

When  ready  to  be  placed  in  position,  this  derrick, 
built  of  odds  and  ends,  was  an  enormous  spar  one 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  feet  long.  To  support  it 
over  the  water,  elaborate  devices  had  to  be  rigged 
from  the  cliff  overhead,  and  the  whole  story  of  this 
achievement,  as  related  by  Captain  Dickinson,  reads 
like  such  a  masterful,  almost  titanic  battle  against 
odds  that  it  seems  worth  while  quoting  at  some 
length : 

1  'We  had  by  this  time  taken  off  thirteen  feet  of 
the  peak  of  the  northeast  cliff,  and  thereby  made  a 
platform  of  eighty  feet  by  sixty.  On  this  was 
placed  the  Lightning's  capstan  and  four  crabs 3 
formed  of  the  heels  of  the  Thetis' s  topmasts,  the 
Lightning' s  bower  and  stream  anchors,  and  the  store 
anchor,  to  which  was  shackled  the  chain  splicing- 
tails  and  several  lengths  of  the  Thetis' s  chain  stream 
cable  which  we  had  recovered,   extending  several 

2  Dredged. 

3  Portable  machines  used  as  capstans. 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  319 

fathoms  over  the  cliff  to  attach  the  standing  parts  of 
the  topping-lifts  and  guy-topping-lifts  to,  and  pre- 
serve them  from  chafing  against  the  rocks.  There 
were  also  eight  large  bollards  4  placed  in  proper  po- 
sitions for  other  securities.  Four  other  platforms, 
each  large  enough  for  working  a  crab,  were  made 
at  appropriate  parts  for  using  the  guys  and  guy-top- 
ping lifts.  The  roads  and  paths  had  been  cut,  ex- 
tending from  our  encampment  to  those  platforms, 
and  from  the  one  to  the  other  of  them  together 
amounted  to  the  length  of  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half. 
The  zig-zag  path  down  the  cliff  was  finished,  and  at 
those  parts  of  the  main  cliff  which  were  inaccessible 
in  this  manner,  rope-ladders  were  substituted,  and 
thus  a  communication  was  formed  with  the  cove  at 
the  point  where  the  derrick  was  to  be  stepped. 

"All  this  being  done,  the  large  hawsers  were  rove 
through  the  blocks,  their  purchases  lashed  to  them, 
and  partially  overhauled  over  the  cliffs.  The  get- 
ting the  before-mentioned  heavy  articles  up  was 
most  distressingly  laborious,  for  they  were  obliged 
to  be  carried  a  greater  part  of  the  distance  where  the 
surface  was  covered  with  a  deep  loose  sand,  and  to 
this  cause  may  be  mainly  attributed  a  complaint  of 
the  heart  which  subsequently  attacked  several  of  the 
people. 

' '  The  derrick,  which  was  now  composed  of  twenty- 
two  pieces  united  by  a  great  number  of  dowels  and 
bolts,  thirty-four  hoops,  and  numerous  wooldings  5 
of  four-inch  ropes,  was  finished  on  the  evening  of 
the  7th,  and  the  clothing  fitted  on,  and  I  now  had 

*  Strong  pieces  of  timber  placed  vertically  in  the  ground  for 
fastening  ropes  to. 

6  Wrappings.  Captain  Kidd  uses  this  old  word  in  his  own  nar- 
rative.    See  page  109, 


320         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

arrived  at  a  point  which  required  much  foresight 
and  pre-arrangement,  namely,  the  preparation  for 
erecting  it;  and  it  was  necessary  to  weigh  with  cool- 
ness and  circumspection  the  mode  by  which  this  was 
to  be  done. 

"A  party  of  about  sixty  of  our  best  hands  were 
employed  in  getting  the  Lightning's  chain  and 
hempen  stream  cables  and  large  hawsers  passed 
over  and  around  the  faces  of  the  cliffs,  and  the  pur- 
chases were  sufficiently  overhauled  to  admit  of  their 
reaching  the  derrick,  and  the  falls  brought  to  the 
capstan  and  crabs,  ready  for  heaving  it  up.  All 
who  are  well  acquainted  with  the  character  and  man- 
ners of  sailors  know  that  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  rid 
them  of  their  habitual  heedlessness.  I  endeavored 
to  impress  them  with  the  need  of  caution,  and  the 
almost  universal  answer  I  got  was  ' Never  fear,  sir,' 
which  from  the  fearless  and  careless  manner  in  which 
it  was  expressed,  was  by  no  means  calculated  to  re- 
move my  apprehensions  for  their  safety. 

"The  task  we  had  now  in  hand  was  one  of  much 
danger.  The  parties  working  over  the  cliffs  were 
some  of  them  slung  in  bights  of  rope,  some  sup- 
ported by  man-ropes,  some  assisting  each  other  by 
joining  hands,  and  others  holding  by  the  uncertain 
tenure  of  a  tuft  of  grass  or  a  twig,  while  loose  frag- 
ments of  rock,  being  disturbed  by  the  gear  and  by 
the  men  who  were  working  on  the  upper  part,  were 
precipitated  amidst  those  below,  while  the  sharp 
crags  lacerated  the  hands  and  feet  and  rendered 
dodging  these  dangers  extremely  difficult.  How- 
ever, by  great  attention  on  the  part  of  the  officers, 
and  by  promptitude  in  giving  aid  when  required, 
this  very  arduous  part  of  our  work  was  performed, 
which  I  sincerely  believe  could  not  have  been  ac- 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  321 

complished  by  any  men  in  the  world  but  British 
seamen;  the  only  accidents  being  some  cuts  in  the 
hands  and  feet,  and  bruises  from  falling  stones. 

''All  the  gear  being  prepared,  in  the  evening  I 
arranged  the  distribution  of  my  officers  with  their 
particular  parties  at  the  capstan,  crabs,  purchases, 
etc.  The  smallness  of  the  number  of  hands  sent 
from  the  Warspite  rendered  it  necessary  that  I 
should  have  every  working  man  from  the  Lightning; 
and  on  this  occasion  she  was  left  with  only  a  few 
convalescents'  to  take  care  of  her,  and  even  the 
young  gentlemen 6  were  obliged  to  give  their  aid  at 
the  capstan.  On  the  morning  of  the  9th,  the  der- 
rick was  launched  without  casualty,  and  while  the 
boats  were  towing  it  to  the  cove,  all  gear  was  got 
ready  to  be  attached  to  it  the  moment  it  arrived 
at  the  proper  position,  according  to  the  plan  I  had 
given. 

"It  had  to  be  towed  for  a  distance  of  about  a 
mile,  subject  to  the  influence  of  a  strong  current 
running  westward  through  the  gut,  at  once  exposing 
us  to  the  two-fold  danger  of  being  driven  to  sea  or 
against  the  rocks.  In  apprehension  of  accident 
from  one  or  the  other  of  these  causes,  I  had  taken 
the  precaution  of  placing  bolts  at  several  points  of 
the  rocks,  so  that  in  case  of  necessity  a  warp  might 
be  made  fast.  However,  the  derrick  reached  the 
cove  without  disaster,  and  as  everything  depended 
on  promptitude  of  action,  I  had  all  the  gear  fitted  to 
go  with  toggles,  which  so  much  facilitated  the  rig- 
ging that  in  one  hour  and  a  half  after  its  arrival, 
everything  was  in  place  and  the  Lightning's  chain 
stream  cable  being  made  fast  to  the  heel  of  the  der- 
rick, ready  for  heaving  up,  I  left  the  further  man- 

6  Midshipmen, 


322         THE  BOOK  OF  BUEIED  TKEASURE 

agement  in  the  cove  to  Mr.  Chatfield,  and  placed 
myself  upon  the  main  cliff. 

"I  then  gave  the  order  to  heave  round,  and  every- 
one was  on  the  alert;  but  we  had  scarcely  brought 
any  considerable  strain  on  the  gear  when  a  report 
came  to  me  that  the  heel  of  the  derrick  was  dis- 
placed and  driven  into  a  chasm  at  the  foot  of  the 
cliff,  an  accident  which  for  this  time  put  an  end  to 
further  efforts.  I  had  no  alternative  but  to  cast 
everything  off  in  a  hurry,  and  if  possible  return 
to  the  harbor  with  the  derrick ;  but  this  had  become 
exceedingly  doubtful,  for  the  wind  was  much  in- 
creased since  morning,  and  the  current  more  rapid. 
We  repeatedly  succeeded  in  towing  the  derrick  into 
the  gut,  and  were  as  often  driven  back ;  till  at  length 
we  were  compelled  to  make  it  fast  to  the  rock  outside 
until  a  small  anchor  and  some  grapnels  were  laid 
out,  by  which  means  it  was  finally  warped  into  the 
harbor,  and  by  half -past  eleven  at  night  moored  near 
the  Adelaide.  Undismayed  by  this  failure,  by 
seven  o'clock  of  the  following  morning,  we  were 
again  in  the  cove  with  the  derrick. 

"The  vast  weight,  the  great  height  of  the  pur- 
chases, the  number  of  them,  and  the  great  distances 
they  were  apart,  made  united  effort  impossible,  but 
at  the  close  of  the  day  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  see- 
ing this  huge  spar  in  the  place  assigned  for  it,  and 
the  head  of  it  hove  ten  feet  above  the  water.  On 
the  11th,  we  were  again  at  our  purchases,  and  the 
head  of  the  derrick  was  raised  to  the  angle  I  had  in- 
tended, being  about  fifty  feet  above  the  surface  of 
the  sea. 

"During  the  operation  of  erecting  the  derrick,  it 
showed  great  pliability,  the  result  of  being  composed 
of  so  many  pieces,  which  obliged  us  to  get  numerous 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  323 

additional  guys  on;  and  having  thus  secured  it,  we 
returned  to  our  encampment,  all  hands  greatly 
fatigued  by  three  days  of  the  most  harassing  exer- 
tion, from  half-past  four  in  the  morning  until  late 
at  night.  On  looking  down  from  the  precipice  on 
this  enormous  machine,  with  all  its  necessary  rig- 
ging, it  became  a  matter  of  astonishment  to  myself, 
and  I  believe  to  everyone  else  who  saw  it,  that  with 
the  small  means  we  had,  we  could  have  succeeded  in 
such  a  situation.  It  has  been  my  lot  to  witness  many 
circumstances  in  which  there  was  cause  for  great 
solicitude,  but  never  one  wherein  such  general  anxi- 
ety was  manifested  as  on  this  occasion.  If  any 
one  thing  had  given  way,  it  must  have  been  fatal  to 
the  whole — a  general  crash  would  have  been  inev- 
itable." 

Meanwhile,  Captain  Dickinson  had  found  time  to 
devise  a  small  diving  bell,  made  from  another  water 
tank,  which  could  be  operated  from  spars  and  tackle 
set  up  on  board  a  launch.  This  was  employed  for 
exploring  the  bottom  of  the  cove  in  order  to  find 
where  the  treasure  was.  The  bell  held  two  men, 
and  there  were  plenty  of  volunteers  to  risk  their 
lives  in  the  first  descent  in  this  little  iron  pot.  The 
trip  was  disastrous,  and  the  commander  described  it 
as  follows : 

"The  water  happened  to  be  particularly  clear, 
which  gave  me  an  indistinct  sight  of  the  bell  at 
the  depth  of  eight  fathoms,  and  I  had  been  watch- 
ing it  with  breathless  anxiety  for  a  long  time,  when 
suddenly  a  small  line  of  air  bubbles  rose  from  about 
the  middle  of  the  hose.  I  instantly  gave  the  word 
to  the  men  in  the  launch  to  make  ready  to  haul  away, 
but  the  two  men  in  the  bell  made  no  signal  to  be 
pulled  up.     The  agitation  of  the  sea  became  greater 


324         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

every  minute,  and  there  was  a  rise  and  fall  of  eight 
or  ten  feet  of  surf  against  the  cliffs.  The  danger 
was  increasing,  and  I  was  about  to  order  the  bell  to 
be  raised  when  an  immense  column  of  air  came 
bursting  up  from  it.  It  had  been  driven  violently 
against  the  rocks,  thrown  on  its  side,  and  filled  with 
water. 

''The  next  moment  I  saw  the  two  men  emerge 
from  the  bell  and  swim  to  the  surface.  Heans  had 
been  entangled  in  the  signal  line,  but  he  managed  to 
release  himself,  and  Dewar  bobbed  up  a  few  seconds 
later.  They  were  too  exhausted  to  say  much,  but 
Heans  called  to  his  partner,  'Never  mind,  mate,  we 
haven 't  done  with  the  damn  thing  yet. '  ' ' 

These  plucky  seamen  went  down  again  and  dis- 
covered considerable  wreckage  of  the  lost  frigate. 
A  Brazilian  colonel,  with  a  gang  of  native  Indian 
divers  now  appeared  on  the  scene  with  a  great  deal 
of  brag  about  their  ability  to  find  the  treasure  with- 
out any  apparatus.  They  proved  to  be  pestering 
nuisances  who  accomplished  nothing  and  were  sent 
about  their  business  after  several  futile  attempts 
under  water.  They  furnished  one  jest,  however, 
which  helped  to  lighten  the  toil.  The  bell  was  being 
lowered  when  one  of  these  natives,  or  cdboclos,  slid 
over  the  side  of  the  boat  and  disappeared  in  the 
green  depths.  In  a  few  seconds,  the  signal  came 
from  the  bell  to  hoist  up.  Fearing  trouble,  the 
helpers  hoisted  lustily,  and  as  the  bell  approached 
the  surface,  something  of  a  brownish  hue  was  seen 
hanging  to  its  bottom  which  was  presently  discov- 
ered to  be  the  caboclo  who  had  tried  to  enter  the 
bell.  The  men  mistook  him  for  an  evil  spirit  or 
some  kind  of  a  sea  monster  and  kicked  him  back  into 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  325 

the  water  outside,  and  he  could  only  hang  on  by 
the  foot-rail,  with  his  head  inside  the  bell. 

The  first  encouraging  tidings  was  signaled  from 
the  small  diving  bell  on  March  27th,  when  a  bit  of 
board  floated  up  from  the  submerged  men  with  these 
words  written  upon  it:  "Be  careful  in  lowering  the 
bell  to  a  foot,  for  we  are  now  over  some  dollars." 
Soon  they  came  up,  from  seven  fathoms  down,  with 
their  caps  full  of  silver  dollars  and  some  gold.  Cap- 
tain Dickinson  decided  to  push  the  search  night  and 
day,  and  the  boats  were  therefore  equipped  with 
torches.  It  was  a  spirited  and  romantic  scene  as 
he  describes  it. 

"Thetis  Cove  would  have  supplied  a  fine  subject 
for  an  artist.  The  red  glare  cast  from  the  torches 
on  every  projection  of  the  stupendous  cliffs  ren- 
dered the  deep  shadows  of  their  fissures  and  inden- 
tations more  conspicuous.  The  rushing  of  roaring 
sea  into  the  deep  chasms  produced  a  succession  of 
reports  like  those  of  cannon;  and  the  assembled 
boats,  flashing  in  and  out  of  the  gloom  were  kept 
in  constant  motion  by  the  long  swell.  The  experi- 
ment succeeded  to  admiration,  and  we  continued 
taking  up  treasure  until  two  o'clock  of  the  morning 
of  the  first  of  April,  when  we  were  glad  to  retire; 
having  obtained  in  the  whole  by  this  attempt,  6326 
dollars,  36  pounds,  10  ounces  of  Plata  pina,  5  pounds, 
4  ounces  of  old  silver,  243  pounds,  8  ounces  of  sil- 
ver in  bars,  and  4  pounds,  8  ounces  of  gold.  After 
a  little  rest  we  were  again  at  our  employment  by 
half -past  five,  and  proceeded  very  prosperously  for 
some  hours,  and  then  had  to  desist  because  of  a 
dangerous  shift  of  wind." 

As  soon  as  the  larger  bell  and  the  giant  derrick 


326         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

could  be  put  in  service,  the  happy  task  of  fishing 
up  treasure  was  carried  on  at  a  great  pace.  Unlike 
many  other  such  expeditions,  nothing  was  done  at 
haphazard.  The  toilers  under  water  "were  first 
to  go  to  the  outermost  dollar,  or  other  article  of 
gold  they  could  discover,  and  to  place  a  pig  of  bal- 
last, with  a  bright  tally  board  fast  to  it,  against  and 
on  the  inner  side  of  the  nearest  fixed  rock  they 
could  find.  From  this  they  were  then  to  proceed  to 
take  up  all  that  lay  immediately  on  the  surface  of 
the  bottom,  but  not  to  remove  anything  else  until 
all  that  was  visible  was  obtained.  This  being  done, 
they  were  to  return  to  the  place  first  searched 
and  passing  over  the  same  ground,  remove  the 
small  rocks  and  other  articles,  one  by  one,  and  pro- 
gressively take  up  what  might  be  recovered  by  such 
removal,  but  not  on  any  account  to  dig  without  ex- 
press orders  from  me." 

Life  in  the  camp  on  Cape  Frio  had  no  holiday 
flavor,  and  while  there  was  continual  danger  afloat, 
there  were  troubles  and  hardships  on  shore.  "In 
addition  to  our  sufferings  from  the  wind  and  rain 
penetrating  our  flimsy  huts,  we  were  attacked  by 
myriads  of  tormentors  in  the  shape  of  ants,  mosqui- 
toes, fleas,  and  worst  of  all,  jiggers.  Many  of  the 
people  frequently  had  their  eyes  entirely  closed 
from  the  stings  of  the  mosquitoes.  At  night  swarms 
of  fleas  assailed  us  in  our  beds,  while  by  day  it  af- 
forded a  kind  of  amusment  to  pull  up  the  leg  of  one's 
trousers  and  see  them  take  flight  like  a  flock  of 
sparrows  from  a  corn-stack,  while  there  might  be  a 
hundred  congregated  inside  the  stocking.  Those  lit- 
tle insidious  devils,  the  jiggers,  penetrated  the  skin 
in  almost  all  parts  of  the  body,  forming  a  round  ball 
and  causing  sores  which,  being  irritated  by  the  sand, 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  327 

became  most  painful  and  troublesome  ulcers,  and 
produced  lameness  to  half  of  our  number  at  a  time. 

' '  Snakes  were  so  numerous  that  the  thatching  and 
almost  every  nook  of  our  huts  was  infested  with 
them.  They  were  often  found  in  the  peoples'  ham- 
mocks and  clothes,  and  several  were  caught  on  board 
the  ship.  On  one  occasion,  my  clerk's  assistant  was 
writing  in  his  hut  when  a  rustling  in  the  overhang- 
ing growth  caused  him  to  look  up  and  discover  a 
huge  snake,  its  head  extending  several  feet  inside  the 
hole  that  served  as  a  window.  He  alarmed  the  camp, 
and  muskets,  cutlasses,  sticks,  and  every  other 
weapon  were  caught  up.  The  snake  escaped,  but 
I  received  numerous  reports  of  his  extraordinary 
dimensions.  My  steward  insisted  that  it  was  as  big 
around  as  his  thigh,  the  sentry  said  it  was  as  big  as 
the  Lightning's  bower  cable,  and  as  to  length  the 
statements  varied  between  twenty  and  thirty  feet. 
At  another  time,  Mr.  Sutton,  the  boatswain,  went 
into  the  store,  in  which  there  was  no  window,  to  get 
a  piece  of  rope.  Going  in  from  the  glare  of  the  sun, 
the  place  appeared  dark  to  him,  and  he  laid  hold 
of  what  he  thought  was  a  length  of  rope,  pulled 
lustily  at  it,  and  was  not  undeceived  until  it  was 
dragged  out  into  the  light.  Then  he  was  horror- 
struck  to  find  he  had  hold  of  a  large  snake." 

In  May,  Captain  Dickinson  was  able  to  send  to 
England  in  H.  M.  S.  Eden,  treasure  to  the  hand- 
some amount  of  $130,000  in  bullion  and  specie,  and 
had  every  promise  of  recovering  most  of  the  re- 
mainder of  the  precious  cargo.  Then  a  terrific 
storm  swept  the  cove,  totally  demolished  the  der- 
rick, carried  the  large  diving  bell  to  the  bottom,  and 
made  hash  of  the  whole  equipment  devised  with  such 
immense    toil    and    pains.    Was    he    discouraged? 


328         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Not  a  bit  of  it.  He  straightway  set  his  men  at 
work  to  construct  new  apparatus  with  which  he 
fetched  up  more  gold  and  silver,  to  the  value  of  half 
a  million  dollars  before  he  forsook  the  task.  First 
let  him  tell  you  in  his  own  words  of  that  tragic 
storm  and  its  results. 

"At  one  o'clock  of  the  morning  of  May  19th,  it 
blew  a  perfect  gale,  the  cove  was  in  a  far  more  dis- 
turbed state  than  I  had  ever  seen  it  before,  the  seas 
rolled  up  the  cliff  to  an  astonishing  height,  and  by 
daylight  the  cove  was  in  a  state  of  awful  commotion. 
The  spray  was  driven  so  wildly  that  while  standing 
on  the  main  platform,  at  an  elevation  of  155  feet, 
I  was  completely  wet  and  could  scarcely  resist  it. 
The  waves  struck  the  derrick  with  steadily  increas- 
ing force,  and  I  watched  it  with  all  the  distressing 
feelings  that  a  father  would  evince  toward  a  favorite 
child  when  in  a  situation  of  great  danger.  By  six 
o'clock  the  wind  threw  the  waves  obliquely  against 
the  southeast  cliff,  and  caused  them  to  sweep  along 
its  whole  length  until  opposed  by  the  opposite  cliff 
from  which  as  each  wave  recoiled  it  was  met  by  the 
following  one,  and  thus  accumulated,  they  rose  in 
one  vast  heap  under  the  derrick  stage,  beat  it  from 
under  the  bell,  and  washed  away  the  air-pump,  air- 
hoses,  and  semaphore.  The  stage  was  suspended 
at  a  height  of  thirty-eight  feet  above  the  surface  of 
the  sea  in  ordinary  weather,  from  which  circum- 
stances an  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  furious  agita- 
tion of  the  cove. 

"Nine  o'clock  arrived,  and  I  had  been  watching 
for  fourteen  hours.  The  constant  concussions  had 
caused  the  gear  of  the  derrick  to  stretch,  and  every 
blow  from  the  sea  caused  it  to  swing  and  buckle  to 
an  alarming  degree.    Nothing  more  could  possibly 


Thetis  Cove  in  calm  weather,  showing  salvage  operations. 


Thetis  Cove  during  the  storm  which  wrecked  the  salvage  equipment. 
(From  lithographs  made  in   1836.) 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  329 

be  done  to  save  it,  and  I  saw  plainly  that  unless  the 
gale  soon  ceased  its  destruction  was  inevitable.  I 
therefore  left  an  officer  on  watch,  and  quitted  the 
cliff  to  go  to  my  hut  and  arrange  my  parties  for  the 
work  to  be  put  in  hand  after  the  catastrophe.  Pres- 
ently he  came  down  to  meet  me,  and  reported  that 
a  stupendous  roller  had  struck  the  derrick  on  its 
side,  and  broke  it  off  twenty  feet  from  the  heel. 
Thus  in  one  crash  was  destroyed  the  child  of  my 
hopes,  and  in  a  very  short  time  the  derrick  was 
dashed  into  six  pieces,  forming,  with  the  complicated 
gear,  one  confused  mass  of  wreckage. ' ' 

Before  the  storm  had  subsided,  the  indefatigable 
seamen,  blacksmiths,  and  carpenters  were  solving 
the  problem  afresh,  just  as  if  there  had  not  been  a 
clean  sweep  of  their  weary  months  of  effort.  This 
time  it  was  a  new  scheme  for  a  suspension  cable 
that  had  occurred  to  Captain  Dickinson.  While  this 
work  was  in  progress  he  made  another  diving  bell 
from  a  water-tank,  and  succeeded  in  finding  his  air 
pump  at  the  bottom  of  the  cove.  Two  men  were 
drowned  in  the  surf  at  this  stage  of  operations,  the 
only  fatalities  suffered  by  the  heroic  company. 
The  diving  bell  was  successfully  slung  from  the  sus- 
pended cable  after  a  vast  deal  of  ingenious  and  dar- 
ing engineering,  and  by  means  of  it  much  treasure 
was  recovered,  although  the  contrivance  yawed  fear- 
fully under  water  and  more  than  once  capsized  and 
spilled  its  crew  who  fought  their  gasping  way  to 
the  surface. 

After  fourteen  months  of  incessant  toil,  the  men 
and  officers  worn  to  the  bone  and  ravaged  by  fever 
and  dysentery,  they  had  found  almost  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  bullion  and  specie,  or  three- 
fourths  of  the  total  amount  lost  in  the  Thetis.    It 


330         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

had  been  magnificently  successful  salvage,  achieved 
in  the  face  of  odds  that  would  have  disheartened  a 
less  resourceful  and  courageous  commander  than 
Captain  Thomas  Dickinson.  He  appears  to  have 
been  the  man  in  a  thousand  for  the  undertaking. 
Then  occurred  an  inexplicable  sort  of  a  disappoint- 
ment, an  act  of  such  gross  injustice  to  him  that  it 
can  be  explained  only  on  the  theory  of  favoritism  at 
naval  headquarters.  Captain  Dickinson  had  a 
grievance  and  he  describes  the  beginning  of  his 
troubles  in  this  fashion : 

"On  the  7th  and  8th  of  March,  some  more  treas- 
ure was  found  in  a  part  from  which  we  had  removed 
several  guns,  and  here  I  had  determined  to  have  a 
thorough  examination  by  digging,  feeling  assured 
that  here  would  be  found  all  the  remaining  treasure 
that  could  be  obtained.  Our  labors  were  drawing 
to  a  close,  but  while  I  was  enjoying  the  pleasing  an- 
ticipation of  a  speedy  and  successful  termination  of 
the  enterprise,  on  the  6th  I  was  surprised  by  the  ar- 
rival of  His  Majesty's  sloop  Algerine,  with  orders 
from  the  Commander-in-Chief  to  me  to  resign  the 
charge  to  Commander  the  Honorable  J.  F.  F.  de 
Roos  of  that  sloop.  It  appears  that  the  Admiralty 
had  been  led  to  think  that  no  more  property  could 
be  rescued,  and  therefore  ordered  my  removal.  I 
could  not  but  feel  this  a  most  mortifying  circum- 
stance. I  had  been  the  only  person  who  had  come 
forward  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  the  large  prop- 
erty which  was  considered  to  be  irretrievably  lost; 
I  had  devised  the  whole  of  the  methods  by  which  a 
very  large  portion  of  it  was  recovered;  I  had  en- 
dured peril,  sickness,  toil,  and  privation  during  more 
than  a  year;  and  the  work  was  now  reduced  to  a 
mere  plaything  compared  with  what  it  had  been,  and 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  331 

yet  I  was  not  allowed  to  put  the  finishing  hand  to 
it.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  deep  interest  I  felt 
in  the  undertaking  remained  unabated,  and  I  was 
determined  that  nothing  should  be  wanting  on  my 
part  to  ensure  a  successful  termination  of  it." 

Quite  courteously,  Captain  Dickinson  explained  in 
detail  to  Commander  the  Honorable  J.  F.  F.  de 
Eoos  the  plant  and  the  operations,  and  even  left  for 
him  to  fish  up  a  large  quantity  of  treasure  already 
located  and  which  could  be  scooped  up  from  the 
diving  bell  without  difficulty.  "With  a  feeling 
which  I  thought  would  be  appreciated  by  a  brother 
officer,  I  did  not  attempt  to  bring  up  this  treasure, 
but  left  it  for  the  benefit  of  our  successors,  observ- 
ing at  the  time  that  the  world  should  not  say  that 
I  had  left  them  nothing  to  do  but  the  labor  of  re- 
moving rocks  and  rubbish. ' ' 

The  amount  subsequently  recovered  by  the  Al- 
gerine  was  $161,500,  so  that  by  Captain  Dickinson's 
efforts,  and  the  use  of  his  plans  and  equipment,  all 
but  one-sixteenth  of  the  lost  treasure  was  restored 
to  its  owners,  and  of  this  he  himself  had  raised  by 
far  the  greater  part.  When  he  returned  to  England 
and  learned  that  salvage  was  to  be  awarded  to  the 
officers  and  men  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  work, 
he  naturally  regarded  himself  as  the  principal 
salvor.  The  Admiralty,  in  its  inscrutable  wisdom, 
chose  to  think  otherwise,  and  the  underwriters  of 
Lloyd's,  taking  their  cue  from  this  exalted  quarter, 
regarded  poor  Captain  Dickinson  with  the  cold  and 
fishy  eye  of  disfavor.  The  case  was  argued  in  the 
Court  of  Admiralty,  and  the  agents  of  Admiral 
Baker,  he  who  had  been  in  command  of  the  squadron 
at  Rio,  set  up  the  claim  that  he  was  the  principal 
salvor,  although  the  fact  was  plain  that  he  had  noth- 


332         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ing  whatever  to  do  with  recovering  the  treasure 
from  the  Thetis,  and  not  even  visited  Cape  Frio  dur- 
ing the  year  of  active  operations. 

The  judge  could  not  stomach  such  a  high-handed 
claim  as  this,  and  his  decision  set  aside  the  admiral 
in  favor  of  Captain  Dickinson  and  the  crew  of  the 
Lightning.  The  salvage  award,  however,  amounting 
to  £17,000,  was  decreed  as  due  also  to  the  company 
of  the  Algerine,  numbering  almost  four  hundred 
men,  which  left  small  pickings  for  Captain  Dick- 
inson and  his  heroes.  This  was  so  obviously  unfair 
that  he  appealed  to  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the 
Privy  Council,  which  increased  the  award  by  the 
sum  of  £12,000,  in  which  Commander  the  Honorable 
J.  F.  F.  de  Roos  and  his  belated  treasure  seekers 
were  not  entitled  to  share.  The  influential  com- 
mittee of  Lloyd's  thought  that  Captain  Dickinson 
should  not  have  been  so  bumptious  in  defending  his 
rights,  and  because  he  disagreed  with  their  opin- 
ions, they  ignored  him  in  a  set  of  resolutions  which 
speak  for  themselves : 

"1st.  A  vote  of  thanks  to  Admiral  Sir  Thomas 
Baker,  for  his  zeal  and  exertions. 

"2nd.  The  same  to  Captain  de  Roos,  of  the  Al- 
gerine, and  a  grant  of  £2,000  to  himself,  his  officers, 
and  crew,  being  the  amount  they  would  have  received 
had  they  been  parties  to  the  appeal. 

"3rd.  To  mark  the  sense  of  the  meeting  of  Cap- 
tain de  Roos's  conduct,  they  further  voted  to  this 
officer  a  piece  of  plate  to  the  value  of  one  hundred 
guineas." 

In  other  words,  an  unimportant  naval  captain  de- 
served this  censure  because  he  had  not  been  content 
to  take  what  was  graciously  flung  at  him  by  Lloyd's 


THE  TOILERS  OF  THE  THETIS  333 

and  the  Admiralty,  but  had  stood  up  for  his  rights 
as  long  as  he  had  a  shot  in  the  locker.  There  is 
something  almost  comic  in  the  figure  cut  by  Com- 
mander the  Honorable  J.  F.  F.  de  Roos,  who  reaped 
the  reward  of  another  man's  labors  and  received 
the  formal  thanks  of  Lloyd's  as  the  chief  treasure 
finder  of  the  Thetis  frigate.  Captain  Thomas  Dick- 
inson was  a  dogged  and  aggressive  sort  of  person, 
not  in  the  least  afraid  of  giving  offense  in  high 
places,  and  had  he  not  been  of  this  stamp  of  man 
he  would  never  have  fought  that  winning  fight 
against  obstacles  amid  the  hostile  cliffs  and  waters 
of  desolate  Cape  Frio.  He  shows  his  mettle  in  a 
fine  outburst  of  protest,  the  provocation  for  which 
was  a  sentence  in  a  letter  published  in  a  London 
newspaper  while  his  case  was  under  discussion: 
"Had  Captain  Dickinson  relied  on  the  liberality  of 
Lloyd's  Coffee  House,  he  would  not  have  been  a 
poorer  man." 

This  was  like  a  spark  in  a  magazine,  and  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Lightning  flings  back  in  retort: 

"Here,  then  we  arrive  at  the  development  of  the 
real  feelings  of  the  Underwriters;  here  is  exposed 
the  head  and  front  of  my  offending.  Rely  on  the 
liberality  of  Lloyd's  Coffee  House!!  So  that  be- 
cause I  would  not  abandon  my  duty  to  my  officers 
and  crew,  or  separate  my  interests  from  theirs,  and 
place  myself  and  them  at  the  mercy  of  the  Under- 
writers, therefore  the  enterprise  and  the  services 
of  fourteen  months,  besides  the  rescue  of  nearly  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  are  to  be  considered  as 
utterly  unworthy  of  mention.  Can  it  be  necessary, 
in  order  to  entitle  a  British  officer  to  honorable  men- 
tion in  Lloyd's  Coffee  House  that  he  should  aban- 


334         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

don  a  right,  and  succumbing  to  the  feet  of  its  mighty 
Committee,  accept  a  donation,  doled  out  with  all 
the  ostentation  of  a  gratuitous  liberality,  in  place 
of  that  reward  which  legally  took  precedence  even 
of  the  ownership  of  the  property  rescued ! ! ' ' 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  QUEST  OP  EL  DORADO 

In  our  time  the  golden  word  Eldorado  has  come 
to  mean  the  goal  of  unattained  desires,  the  magic 
country  of  dreams  that  forever  lies  just  beyond  the 
horizon.  Its  literal  significance  has  been  lost  in  the 
mists  of  the  centuries  since  when  one  deluded  band 
of  adventurers  after  another  was  exploring  un- 
known regions  of  the  New  World  in  quest  of  the 
treasure  city  hidden  somewhere  in  the  remote  in- 
terior of  South  America.  Thousands  of  lives  and 
millions  of  money  were  vainly  squandered  in  these 
pilgrimages,  but  they  left  behind  them  one  of  the 
most  singularly  romantic  chapters  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  conquest  and  discovery. 

The  legend  of  El  Dorado  was  at  first  inspired  by 
the  tales  of  a  wonderful  and  veritable  dorado,  or 
gilded  man,  king  of  a  tribe  of  Indians  dwelling,  at 
the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  upon  the  lofty 
tableland  of  Bogota,  in  what  is  now  the  republic  of 
Colombia.  Later  investigations  have  accepted  it  as 
true  that  such  a  personage  existed  and  that  the  cere- 
monies concerning  which  reports  were  current  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century  took  place  at  the  sacred 
lake  of  Guatavia.  There  lived  on  this  plateau,  in 
what  is  still  known  as  the  province  of  Cundina- 
marca,  small  village  communities  of  the  Muysca 
Indians,  somewhat  civilized  and  surrounded  on  all 
sides  by  debased  and  savage  tribes.    They  wor- 

335 


336         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

shiped  the  sun  and  moon,  performed  human  sacri- 
fices, and  adored  striking  natural  objects,  as  was 
the  custom  in  Peru. 

The  numerous  lakes  of  the  region  were  holy 
places,  each  regarded  as  the  home  of  a  particular 
divinity  to  which  gold  and  emeralds  were  offered 
by  throwing  them  into  the  water.  Elsewhere  than 
at  Guatavita  jewels  and  objects  wrought  of  gold 
have  been  discovered  in  the  process  of  draining 
these  little  lakes.  Guatavita,  however,  is  most 
famous  of  all  because  here  originated  the  story  of 
"el  hombre  dorado."  This  sheet  of  water  is  a  few 
miles  north  of  the  capital  city  of  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota, 
more  than  nine  thousand  feet  above  sea  level,  in  the 
heart  of  the  Cordilleras.  Near  the  lake  is  still  the 
village  called  Guatavita. 

In  1490  the  inhabitants  were  an  independent  tribe 
with  a  ruling  chief.  They  had  among  them  a  legend 
that  the  wife  of  one  of  the  earlier  chiefs  had  thrown 
herself  into  the  lake  in  order  to  escape  punishment 
and  that  her  spirit  survived  as  the  goddess  of  the 
place.  To  worship  her  came  the  people  of  other 
communities  of  the  region,  bringing  their  gold  and 
precious  stones  to  cast  into  the  water,  and  Guatavita 
was  famed  for  its  religious  pilgrimages.  When- 
ever a  new  chief,  or  king,  of  Guatavita  was  chosen, 
an  imposing  ceremonial  was  observed  by  way  of 
coronation.  All  the  men  marched  to  the  lake  in  pro- 
cession, at  the  head  a  great  party  wailing,  the 
bodies  nude  and  painted  with  ocher  as  a  sign  of  deep 
mourning.  Behind  them  were  groups  richly  deco- 
rated with  gold  and  emeralds,  their  heads  adorned 
with  feathers,  cloaks  of  jaguar  skins  hanging  from 
their  shoulders.  Many  uttered  joyful  cries  or  blew 
on    trumpets    and    conch-shells.    Then    came    the 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  337 

priests  in  long  black  robes  decorated  with  white 
crosses.  At  the  rear  of  the  procession  were  the 
nobles  escorting  the  newly-elected  chief  who  rode 
upon  a  barrow  hung  with  disks  of  gold. 

His  naked  body  was  anointed  with  resinous  gums 
and  covered  with  gold  dust  so  that  he  shone  like  a 
living  statue  of  gold.  This  was  the  gilded  man, 
El  Dorado,  whose  fame  traveled  to  the  coast  of  the 
Caribbean.  At  the  shore  of  the  lake,  he  and  his 
escort  stepped  upon  a  balsa,  or  raft  made  of  rushes, 
and  moved  slowly  out  to  the  middle.  There  the 
gilded  one  plunged  into  the  deep  water  and  washed 
off  his  precious  covering,  while  with  shouts  and 
music  the  assembled  throng  threw  their  offerings 
of  gold  and  jewels  into  the  lake.  Then  the  worship- 
ers returned  to  the  village  for  dancing  and  feast- 
ing.1 In  the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
or  while  Columbus  was  making  his  voyages,  the 
tribe  of  Guatavita  was  conquered  by  a  stronger  com- 
munity of  the  Muysca  race,  and  the  new  rulers,  being 
of  a  thriftier  mind,  made  an  end  of  the  extravagant 
ceremony  of  el  dorado.  It  is  therefore  assumed 
that  the  gilded  man  had  ceased  to  be,  full  thirty 
years  before  the  Spaniards  first  heard  of  him  at  the 
coast. 

Humboldt  became  interested  in  the  legend  during 
his  South  America  travels  and  reported: 

"I  have  examined  from  a  geographical  point  of 
view  the  expeditions  on  the  Orinoco,  and  in  a  west- 

i  The  performance  of  these  ceremonies  is  vouched  for  by  Lucas 
Fernandez  Piedrahita,  Bishop  of  Panama ;  Pedro  Simon,  and  other 
early  Spanish  historians,  translated  and  quoted  by  A.  F.  Bandelier 
in  his  work,  "The  Gilded  Man  (El  Dorado)."  This  version  agrees 
with  that  described  in  the  volume  written  by  the  modern  historian, 
Dr.  Liborio  Zerda,  professor  of  the  University  of  Colombia,  El 
Dorado,  Estudio  Bistorico,  Ethnografico,  Y  Arqueologico, 


338         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ern  and  southern  direction  in  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Andes,  before  the  tradition  of  El  Dorado  was 
spread  among  the  conquerors.  This  tradition  had 
its  origin  in  the  kingdom  of  Quito  where  Luiz  Daza, 
in  1535,  met  with  an  Indian  of  New  Granada  who 
had  been  sent  by  his  prince,  the  Zipa  of  Bogota,  or 
the  Caique  of  Tunja,  to  demand  assistance  from 
Atahuahalpa,  the  last  Inca  of  Peru.  This  ambas- 
sador boasted,  as  was  usual,  of  the  wealth  of  his 
country;  but  what  particularly  fixed  the  attention 
of  the  Spaniards  who  were  assembled  with  Daza 
was  the  history  of  a  lord  who,  his  body  covered  with 
gold  dust,  went  into  a  lake  amid  the  mountains. 

"As  no  historical  remembrance  attaches  itself  to 
any  other  mountain  lake  in  this  vicinity,  I  suppose 
the  reference  to  be  made  to  the  sacred  lake  of  Gua- 
tavita,  in  the  plains  of  the  Bogota,  into  which  the 
gilded  lord  was  made  to  enter.  On  the  banks  of 
this  lake  I  saw  the  remains  of  a  staircase,  hewn  in 
the  rock,  and  used  for  the  ceremonies  of  ablution. 
The  Indians  told  me  that  powder  of  gold  and  golden 
vessels  were  thrown  into  this  lake  as  a  sacrifice 
to  the  Adoratorio  de  Guatavita.  Vestiges  are  still 
found  of  a  breach  made  by  the  Spaniards  in  order 
to  drain  the  lake.  .  .  .  The  ambassador  of  Bo- 
gota, whom  Daza  met  in  the  kingdom  of  Quito,  had 
spoken  of  a  country  situated  towards  the  east." 

The  latter  reference  means  that  the  legend  had 
spread  from  coast  to  coast.  On  the  Pacific,  the  con- 
quistadores  of  Pizarro  were  for  a  time  too  busily 
engaged  in  looting  the  enormous  treasures  of  the 
last  Inca  of  Peru  to  pay  much  heed  to  the  lure  of 
golden  legends  beckoning  them  further  inland. 
The  first  attempt  to  go  in  search  of  the  gilded  man 
and  his  kingdom  was  made,  not  by  a  Spaniard,  but 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  339 

by  a  German,  Ambrosius  Dalfinger,  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  a  colony  of  his  countrymen  settled  on  the 
shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Venezuela,  a  large  tract  of  that 
region  having  been  leased  by  Spain  to  a  German 
company.  He  pushed  inland  to  the  westward  as  far 
as  the  Rio  Magdalena,  treated  the  natives  with 
horrible  barbarity,  and  was  driven  back  after  losing 
most  of  his  men. 

A  few  years  later,  and  the  legend  was  magnified 
into  a  wondrous  description  of  a  golden  city.  In 
1538,  there  marched  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  Gon- 
zalo  Ximenes  de  Quesada,  surnamed  El  Conquista- 
dor, to  find  the  El  Dorado.  At  the  head  of  six  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  foot-soldiers  and  eighty-five 
mailed  horsemen,  he  made  his  perilous  way  up  the 
Rio  Magdalena,  through  fever-cursed  swamps  and 
tribes  of  hostile  natives,  enduring  hardships  almost 
incredible  until  at  length  he  came  to  the  lofty  plateau 
of  Bogota,  and  the  former  home  of  the  real  gilded 
man.  More  than  five  hundred  of  his  men  had  died 
on  the  journey  of  hunger,  illness,  and  exposure.  He 
found  rich  cities  and  great  stores  of  gold  and  jewels, 
but  failed  to  discover  the  El  Dorado  of  his  dreams. 

Many  stories  were  afloat  of  other  treasures  to  be 
wrested  from  the  Muysca  chiefs,  but  Quesada,  hav- 
ing no  more  than  a  handful  of  fighting  men,  feared 
to  go  campaigning  until  he  had  made  his  position 
secure.  He  therefore  established  a  base  and  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  present  city  of  Bogota.  One 
of  his  scouting  parties  brought  back  tidings  of  a 
tribe  of  very  war-like  women  in  the  south  who  had 
much  gold,  and  in  this  way  was  the  myth  of  the 
Amazons  linked  with  the  El  Dorado  as  early  as  1538. 

Now  occurred  as  dramatic  a  coincidence  as  could 
be  imagined.     To  Quesada  there  appeared  a  Span- 


340         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ish  force  commanded  by  Sebastian  de  Belalcazar, 
the  conqueror  of  Quito,  who  had  come  all  the  way 
from  the  Pacific  coast,  after  hearing  from  an  Indian 
of  New  Granada  the  story  of  the  gilded  man.  No 
sooner  had  this  expedition  arrived  than  it  was  re- 
ported to  Quesada  that  white  men  with  horses  were 
coming  from  the  east.  This  third  company  of  pil- 
grims in  quest  of  El  Dorado  proved  to  be  Nicholas 
Federmann  and  his  hard-bitted  Germans  from  the 
colony  in  Venezuela  who  had  followed  the  trail  made 
by  Dalfinger  and  then  plunged  into  the  wilderness 
beyond  his  furthest  outpost. 

Thus  these  three  daring  expeditions,  Quesada 
from  the  north,  Belalcazar  from  the  south,  and 
Federmann  from  the  east,  met  face  to  face  on  the 
hitherto  unknown  plateau  of  Cundinamarca.  None 
had  been  aware  of  the  others'  march  in  search  of 
this  goal,  and  each  had  believed  himself  to  be  the 
discoverer  of  this  country.  They  were  ready  to  fly 
at  one  another 's  throats,  for  there  could  be  no  amity 
when  gold  was  the  prize  at  stake.  Curiously  enough 
the  three  forces  were  evenly  matched  in  fighting 
strength,  each  with  about  one  hundred  and  sixty 
men.  One  might  think  that  the  two  Spanish  parties 
would  have  united  to  drive  the  Germans  from  the 
home  of  El  Dorado,  but  greed  stifled  all  natural  ties 
and  emotions. 

A  conflict  was  averted  by  the  tact  and  sagacity 
of  Quesada  and  the  priests  of  the  expeditions  who 
acted  as  a  committee  of  arbitration.  It  was  finally 
agreed  among  the  leaders  that  the  several  claims 
should  be  submitted  to  the  Spanish  Court,  and 
Quesada,  Belalcazar,  and  Federmann  set  out  for 
Spain  to  appear  in  person,  leaving  their  forces  in 
possession  of  the  disputed  territory.     The  command 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  341 

of  the  Spanish  troops  was  turned  over  to  Hernan 
Perez  de  Quesada,  the  cruel  and  greedy  brother  of 
the  leader,  who  fortified  himself  at  Bogota  and  pro- 
ceeded to  rob  the  Muysca  people  of  the  last  ounce 
of  gold  that  could  be  extorted  by  means  of  torture 
and  all  manner  of  unspeakable  wickedness.  In  1540 
he  tried  to  drain  the  lake  of  Guatavita,  tempted  by 
the  stories  of  the  vast  treasures  of  gold  and  jewels 
that,  for  centuries,  had  been  thrown  into  the  water 
by  the  worshipers,  but  he  recovered  valuables  only 
to  the  amount  of  four  thousand  ducats.  It  was  the 
remains  of  his  drainage  tunnel  which  Humboldt 
found  and  made  note  of. 

With  the  conquest  of  this  region  was  obtained 
the  last  great  store  of  gold  discovered  by  the 
plundering  Spaniards  in  South  America.  These 
explorers  finished  when  Pizarro  had  begun  in  Peru. 
To  convey  the  treasure  from  Bogota  to  the  coast 
of  the  Carribean  a  road  was  built  through  the  moun- 
tains, much  of  it  cut  as  a  narrow  shelf  in  solid  rock, 
winding  and  dipping  in  a  dizzy  route  to  connect 
with  the  upper  reaches  of  navigation  on  the  Rio 
Magdalena.  This  was  the  famous  El  Camino  Real, 
or  "King's  Highway' '  which  is  still  used  as  one  of 
the  roads  by  which  the  capital  of  Colombia,  Santa 
Fe  de  Bogota  is  reached  by  the  traveler  of  the 
twentieth  century.  It  was  to  intercept  one  of  these 
treasure  trains  that  Amyas  Leigh  and  his  doughty 
comrades  of  "Westward  Ho!"  lay  in  wait,  and  the 
fiction  of  Kingsley  will  better  serve  to  portray  the 
time  and  place  than  the  facts  as  the  old  historians 
strung  them  together. 

"Bidding  farewell  once  and  forever  to  the  green 
ocean  of  the  eastern  plains,  they  have  crossed  the 
Cordillera;  they  have  taken  a  longing  glance  at  the 


342         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

city  of  Santa  Fe,  lying  in  the  midst  of  rich  gardens 
on  its  lofty  mountain  plateau,  and  have  seen,  as 
was  to  be  expected,  that  it  was  far  too  large  for  any 
attempt  of  theirs.  But  they  have  not  altogether 
thrown  away  their  time.  Their  Indian  lad  has  dis- 
covered that  a  gold-train  is  going  down  from  Santa 
Fe  toward  the  Magdalena ;  and  they  are  waiting  for 
it  beside  the  miserable  rut  that  serves  for  a  road, 
encamped  in  a  forest  of  oaks  which  would  make 
them  almost  fancy  themselves  back  in  Europe  were 
it  not  for  the  tree-ferns  which  form  the  under- 
growth; and  were  it  not  for  the  deep  gorges  open- 
ing at  their  very  feet;  in  which  while  their  brows 
are  swept  by  the  cool  breezes  of  a  temperate  zone, 
they  can  see  far  below,  dim  through  their  everlast- 
ing vapor  bath  of  rank,  hot  steam,  the  mighty  forms 
and  gorgeous  colors  of  the  tropic  forest. 

"...  At  last,  up  from  beneath  there  was 
a  sharp  crack  and  a  loud  cry.  The  crack  was  neither 
the  snapping  of  a  branch,  nor  the  tapping  of  a  wood- 
pecker ;  the  cry  was  neither  the  scream  of  a  parrot, 
nor  the  howl  of  a  monkey. 

"  'That  was  a  whip's  crack,'  said  Yeo,  'and  a 
woman's  wail.    They  are  close  here,  lads!' 

"  'A  woman's?  Do  they  drive  women  in  their 
gangs?'  asked  Amyas.  'Why  not,  the  brutes? 
There  they  are,  sir.  Did  you  see  their  basnets 
glitter?' 

"  'Men !'  said  Amyas  in  a  low  voice.  'I  trust  you 
all  not  to  shoot  till  I  do.  Then  give  them  one  ar- 
row, out  swords,  and  at  them!  Pass  the  word 
along. ' 

"Up  they  came,  slowly,  and  all  hearts  beat  loud 
at  their  coming.  First,  about  twenty  soldiers,  only 
one  half  of  whom  were  on  foot;  the  other  half  be- 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  343 

ing  borne,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  each  in  a 
chair  on  the  back  of  a  single  Indian,  while  those  who 
marched  had  consigned  their  heaviest  armor  and 
their  arquebuses  into  the  hands  of  attendant  slaves, 
who  were  each  pricked  on  at  will  by  the  pikes  of 
the  soldiers  behind  them.  .  .  .  Last  of  this 
troop  came  some  inferior  officer  also  in  his  chair, 
who  as  he  went  slowly  up  the  hill,  with  his  face 
turned  toward  the  gang  which  followed,  drew  every 
other  second  the  cigar  from  his  lips  to  inspirit  them 
with  those  pious  ejaculations  .  .  .  which 
earned  for  the  pious  Spaniards  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  uncharitable  imputation  of  being  the 
most  abominable  swearers  in  Europe. 

"  .  .  .  A  line  of  Indians,  Negroes,  and  Zam- 
boes,  naked,  emaciated,  scarred  with  whips  and 
fetters,  and  chained  together  by  their  left  wrists, 
toiled  upwards,  panting  and  perspiring  under  the 
burden  of  a  basket  held  up  by  a  strap  which  passed 
across  their  foreheads.  Yeo's  sneer  was  but  too 
just ;  there  were  not  only  old  men  and  youths  among 
them,  but  women ;  slender  young  girls,  mothers  with 
children  running  at  their  knee;  and  at  the  sight,  a 
low  murmur  of  indignation  rose  from  the  ambushed 
Englishmen,  worthy  of  the  free  and  righteous  hearts 
of  those  days,  when  Raleigh  could  appeal  to  man 
and  God,  on  the  ground  of  a  common  humanity,  in 
behalf  of  the  outraged  heathens  of  the  New  World. 

1  'But  the  first  forty,  so  Amyas  counted,  bore  on 
their  backs  a  burden  which  made  all,  perhaps,  but 
him  and  Yeo,  forget  even  the  wretches  who  bore  it. 
Each  basket  contained  a  square  package  of  care- 
fully corded  hide;  the  look  whereof  friend  Amyas 
knew  full  well. 

"  'What's  in  they,  Captain?' 


344         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

1  *  *  Gold ! '  And  at  that  magic  word  all  eyes  were 
strained  greedily  forward,  and  such  a  rustle  fol- 
lowed that  Amyas,  in  the  very  face  of  detection, 
had  to  whisper: 

"  'Be  men,  be  men,  or  you  will  spoil  all  yet.'  " 

The  muskets  and  long-bows  of  the  stout  English- 
men avenged  the  wrongs  of  this  pitiable  caravan,  al- 
though there  was  no  help  for  a  vast  multitude  of  In- 
dians who  were  put  to  death  with  devilish  torments 
by  their  conquerors.  But  the  legend  of  the  El 
Dorado  still  survived  and  it  spread  like  an  aveng- 
ing spirit.  "  Transplanted  by  the  over-excited  im- 
agination of  the  white  man,  the  vision  appeared  like 
a  mirage  enticing,  deceiving  and  leading  men  to 
destruction,  on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco,  and  the 
Amazon,  in  Omagua  and  Parime."  The  conquest 
of  Bogota  made  them  believe  that  the  gilded  man 
and  his  golden  kingdom  were  somewhere  just  beyond. 
The  licentiate,  Juan  de  Castellanos,  wrote  a  poem 
which  was  published  in  1589,  telling  of  the  legend 
as  it  had  existed  in  Quito  in  the  days  of  the  Con- 
quistadores. 

"When  with  that  folk  came  Annasco, 
Benalcazar  learned  from  a  stranger 
Then  living  in  the  city  of  Quito, 
But  who  called  Bogota  his  home, 
Of  a  land  there  rich  in  golden  treasure, 
Rich  in  emeralds  glistening  the  rock. 

A  chief  was  there,  who  stripped  of  vesture, 
Covered  with  golden  dust  from  crown  to  toe, 
Sailed  with  offerings  to  the  gods  upon  a  lake 
Borne  by  the  waves  upon  a  fragile  raft, 
The  dark  flood  to  brighten  with  golden  light. ' ' 2 

2  Translated  by  A.  F.  Bandelier. 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  345 

Another  and  more  imaginative  version  of  the 
story  was  told  to  Oviedo  3  by  divers  Spaniards  whom 
he  met  in  San  Domingo.  They  had  heard  from  In- 
dians in  Quito  that  the  great  lord,  El  Dorado,  always 
went  about  covered  with  powdered  gold,  because  he 
thought  this  kind  of  garment  more  beautiful  and  dis- 
tinguished than  any  decorations  of  beaten  gold. 
The  lesser  chiefs  were  in  the  habit  of  adorning  them- 
selves likewise,  but  were  not  so  lavish  as  the  king  who 
put  on  his  gold  dust  every  morning  and  washed  it  off 
at  night.  He  first  anointed  himself  with  a  fra- 
grant liquid  gum,  to  which  the  gold  dust  adhered 
so  evenly  that  he  resembled  a  brilliant  piece  of  art- 
fully hammered  gold  metal. 

For  more  than  half  a  century,  the  mad  quest  con- 
tinued, and  always  there  came  tragedy  and  disaster. 
The  German  colony  of  Venezuela  was  wiped  out 
because  of  these  futile  expeditions  into  the  inte- 
rior. Gonzalo  Pizarro,  brother  of  the  great  Fran- 
cisco, set  out  to  find  the  city  of  legend,  and  returned 
after  two  years,  in  such  dreadful  plight  that  the 
survivors  of  the  party  looked  more  like  wild  animals 
than  men,  "so  that  one  could  no  longer  recognize 
them."  Pedro  de  Urzua  started  from  Bogota  to 
find  a  "golden  city  of  the  sun,"  and  his  expedition 
founded  the  town  of  Pampluna.  In  1560  the  same 
leader  was  appointed  "governor  of  Omagua  and  El 
Dorado,"  and  he  set  out  to  find  his  domain  by 
way  of  the  Amazon.    Urzua  was  murdered  by  Lope 

s  Oviedo,  or  Oviedo  y  Vald6z,  royal  histriographer,  who  witnessed 
the  first  return  of  Columbus  to  Spain  in  1493.  He  was  later  a 
treasury  officer  at  Darien,  governor  of  Cartagena,  and  alcaide  of 
the  fort  at  Santo  Domingo.  He  wrote  the  first  general  account  of 
the  discoveries  in  America,  and  it  has  remained  a  standard  au- 
thority. His  principal  work  is  Eistoria  natural  y  general  de  las 
Indias  in  fifty  books. 


346         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

de  Aguirre  who  treacherously  conspired  against 
him,  and  Aguirre  descended  the  great  river  and 
finally  reached  Venezuela  after  one  of  the  maddest 
piratical  cruises  ever  recorded.  Guimilla,  in  a 
"History  of  the  Oronoke,"  says: 

"I  find  it  (El  Dorado)  related  with  such  an  exact 
description  of  the  country,  as  the  missionaries  of 
my  province  and  myself  have  recognized,  that  I  can- 
not doubt  it.  I  have  seen  in  the  jurisdiction  of 
Varinas,  in  the  mountains  of  Pedrarca,  in  1721,  the 
brass  halberd  which  Urzua  took  with  him  in  his  ex- 
pedition. I  have  been  acquainted  with  Don  Joseph 
Cabarte  who  directed  for  thirty  years  the  missions 
of  Agrico  and  the  Oronoke,  the  countries  traversed 
by  Urzua,  and  he  appeared  to  be  fully  persuaded 
that  that  was  the  route  to  El  Dorado. ' ' 

Meanwhile  the  myth  had  assumed  new  forms. 
On  the  southwestern  tributaries  of  the  Amazon 
were  the  fabled  districts  of  Enim  and  Paytiti  said 
to  have  been  founded  by  Incas  who  had  fled  from 
Peru  and  to  have  surpassed  ancient  Cuzco  in  splen- 
dor. North  of  the  Amazon  the  supposed  city  of 
El  Dorado  moved  eastward  until  in  Kaleigh's  time 
it  was  situated  in  Guiana  beside  Lake  Parima.  This 
lake  remained  on  English  maps  until  the  explora- 
tions of  Schomburgk  in  the  nineteenth  century 
proved  that  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  pond  in  a 
vast  swamp.  The  emerald  mountain  of  Espirito 
Santo  and  the  Martyrios  gold  mine,  long  sought  for 
in  Western  Brazil  recalled  the  El  Dorado  myth; 
while  far  to  the  southward  in  the  plains  of  the  Ar- 
gentine the  city  of  Cassar,  with  silver  walls  and 
houses  was  another  alluring  and  persistent  phan- 
tom. It  was  said  to  have  been  founded  by  ship- 
wrecked Spanish  sailors,  and  even  late  in  the  eight- 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  347 

eenth  century  expeditions  were  sent  in  search  for 
it. 

It  was  not  until  1582  that  the  Spanish  ceased  to 
pursue  the  fatal  phantom  city  of  El  Dorado  and 
Southey's  History  of  the  Brazils  is  authority  for 
the  statement  that  these  "  expeditions  cost  Spain 
more  than  all  the  treasures  she  had  received  from 
her  South  American  possessions."  There  is  more 
meaning  than  appears  on  the  surface  in  the  Spanish 
proverb,  "Happiness  is  only  to  be  found  in  El 
Dorado  which  no  one  yet  has  been  able  to  reach." 

Alas,  that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  should  have  been 
lured  to  seek  in  Guiana  the  fabled  El  Dorado  which 
had  now  become  the  splendid  city  of  Manoa  built  on 
the  shores  of  a  vast  inland  lake  of  salt  water.  It 
was  in  this  guise  that  he  heard  the  transplanted  and 
exaggerated  story  of  the  gilded  man.  His  own  nar- 
rative, as  included  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  is  en- 
titled:4 

"The  discovery  of  the  large,  rich  and  beautiful 
Empire  of  Guiana,  with  a  relation  of  the  great  and 
golden  city  of  Manoa  (which  the  Spaniards  call  El 
Dorado)  and  the  provinces  of  Emeria,  Aromaia, 
Amapaia,  and  other  countries,  with  their  rivers  ad- 
joining. Performed  in  the  year  1595  by  Sir  Walter 
Ealeigh,  Knight,  Captain  of  Her  Majesty's  Guard, 
Lord  Warden  of  the  Stanneries,  and  Her  Highness' 
Lieutenant  General  of  the  County  of  Cornwall." 

It  was  while  touching  at  the  island  of  Trinidad, 
outward  bound,  that  Raleigh  had  the  misfortune  to 
learn  the  story  of  a  picturesque  liar  by  the  name  of 
Juan  Martinez,  a  derelict  Spanish  seaman,  who  had 
sailed  with  the  explorer  Diego  de  Ordas  in  1531. 

*  For  the  convenience  of  the  reader  the  spelling  has  been  modern- 
ized in  this  and  the  following  extracts  from  Hakluyt. 


348         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"The  relation  of  this  Martinez  (who  was  the  first 
that  discovered  Manoa)  his  success  and  end  are  to 
be  seen  in  the  Chancery  of  Saint  Juan  de  Puerto 
Rico,"  writes  Raleigh,  "whereof  Berreo  had  a  copy, 
which  appeared  to  be  the  greatest  encouragement  as 
well  to  Berreo  as  to  others  that  formerly  attempted 
the  discovery  and  conquest.  Orellana,  after  he 
failed  of  the  discovery  of  Guiana  by  the  said  river 
of  the  Amazon,  passed  into  Spain,  and  there  ob- 
tained a  patent  of  the  king  for  the  invasion  and 
conquest,  but  died  by  sea  about  the  Islands,  and  his 
fleet  severed  by  tempest,  the  action  for  that  time 
proceeded  not.  Diego  Ordas  followed  the  enter- 
prise, and  departed  Spain  with  six  hundred  soldiers 
and  thirty  horse,  who  arriving  on  the  coast  of  Gui- 
ana, was  slain  in  mutiny,  with  the  most  part  of  such 
as  favored  him,  as  also  of  the  rebellious  part,  inso- 
much as  his  ships  perished,  and  few  or  none  re- 
turned, neither  was  it  certainly  known  what  became 
of  the  said  Ordas  until  Berreo  found  the  anchor  of 
his  ship  in  the  river  of  Orinoco ;  but  it  was  supposed, 
and  so  it  is  written  by  Lopez  that  he  perished  on  the 
seas,  and  of  other  writers  diversely  conceived  and 
reported. 

"And  hereof  it  came  that  Martinez  entered  so  far 
within  the  land  and  arrived  at  that  city  of  Inca,  the 
Emperor;  for  it  chanced  that  while  Ordas  with  his 
army  rested  at  the  port  of  Morequito  (who  was 
either  the  first  or  second  that  attempted  Guiana)  by 
some  negligence  the  whole  store  of  powder  provided 
for  the  service  was  set  on  fire ;  and  Martinez  having 
the  chief  charge B  was  condemned  by  the  General 
Ordas  to  be  executed  forthwith.     Martinez,  being 

5  Martinez  was  the  gunner  or  officer  "who  had  charge  of  the  mu- 
nitions." 


Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


the  Quest  of  el  dorado  349 

much  favored  by  the  soldiers,  had  all  the  means  pos- 
sible procured  for  his  life;  but  it  could  not  be  ob- 
tained in  other  sort  than  this;  That  he  should  be 
set  into  a  canoe  alone  without  any  victuals,  only  with 
his  arms,  and  so  turned  loose  into  the  great  river. 

"But  it  pleased  God  that  the  canoe  was  carried 
down  the  stream  and  that  certain  of  the  Guianians 
met  it  the  same  evening ;  and  having  not  at  any  time 
seen  any  Christian,  nor  any  man  of  that  color,  they 
carried  Martinez  into  the  land  to  be  wondered  at, 
and  so  from  town  to  town,  until  he  came  to  the  great 
city  of  Manoa,  the  seat  and  residence  of  Inca,  the 
Emperor.  The  emperor  after  he  had  beheld  him, 
knew  him  to  be  a  Christian  (for  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore that  his  brethren  Guascar  6  and  Atabalipa 6  were 
vanished  by  the  Spaniards  in  Peru)  and  caused  him 
to  be  lodged  in  his  palace  and  well  entertained.  He 
lived  seven  months  in  Manoa,  but  was  not  suffered 
to  wander  into  the  country  anywhere.  He  was  also 
brought  thither  all  the  way  blindfold,  led  by  the  In- 
dians, until  he  came  to  the  entrance  of  Manoa  itself, 
and  was  fourteen  or  fifteen  days  in  the  passage.  He 
avowed  at  his  death  that  he  entered  the  city  at  noon, 
and  then  they  uncovered  his  face,  and  that  he  trav- 
eled all  that  day  till  night  through  the  city  and  the 
next  day  from  sun  rising  to  sun  setting  ere  he  came 
to  the  palace  of  Inca. 

"After  that  Martinez  had  lived  seven  months  in 
Manoa,  and  began  to  understand  the  language  of  the 
country,  Inca  asked  him  whether  he  desired  to  re- 
turn into  his  own  country,  or  would  willingly  abide 
with  him.  But  Martinez  not  desirous  to  stay,  ob- 
tained the  favor  of  Inca  to  depart;  with  whom  he 
sent  divers  Guianians  to  conduct  him  to  the  river  of 

6  Commonly  spelled  Huascar  and  Atalualpa. 


350         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Orinoco,  all  laden  with  as  much  gold  as  they  could 
carry,  which  he  gave  to  Martinez  at  his  departure. 
But  when  he  was  arrived  near  the  river's  side,  the 
borderers  which  are  called  Orenoqueponi  robbed  him 
and  his  Guianians  of  all  the  treasure  (the  borderers 
being  at  that  time  at  war,  which  Inca  had  not  con- 
quered) save  only  of  two  great  bottles  of  gourds, 
which  were  filled  with  beads  of  gold  curiously 
wrought,  which  those  Orenoqueponi  thought  had 
been  no  other  thing  than  his  drink  or  meat,  or  grain 
for  food,  with  which  Martinez  had  liberty  to  pass. 

"And  so  in  canoes  he  fell  down  from  the  river  of 
Orinoco  to  Trinidad  and  from  thence  to  Margarita, 
and  also  to  Saint  Juan  de  Puerto  Eico,  where  re- 
maining a  long  time  for  passage  into  Spain,  he  died. 
In  the  time  of  his  extreme  sickness,  and  when  he  was 
without  hope  of  life,  receiving  the  Sacrament  at  the 
hands  of  his  confessor,  he  delivered  these  things, 
with  the  relation  of  his  travels,  and  also  called  for 
his  calabazas  or  gourds  of  the  gold  beads  which  he 
gave  to  the  church  and  friars  to  be  prayed  for. 

"This  Martinez  was  he  that  christened  the  city  of 
Manoa  by  the  name  of  El  Dorado,  and  as  Berreo 
informed  me,  upon  this  occasion;  Those  Guianians, 
and  also  the  borderers,  and  all  others  in  that  tract 
which  I  have  seen,  are  marvelous  great  drunkards; 
in  which  vice,  I  think  no  nation  can  compare  with 
them;  and  at  the  times  of  their  solemn  feasts  when 
the  emperor  carouseth  with  his  captains,  tributaries, 
and  governors  the  manner  is  thus : 

"All  those  that  pledge  him  are  first  stripped 
naked,  and  their  bodies  anointed  all  over  with  a 
kind  of  white  balsam  (by  them  called  curca)  of  which 
there  is  great  plenty,  and  yet  very  dear  amongst 
them,   and   it   is   of  all  other   the   most   precious, 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  351 

whereof  we  have  had  good  experience.  When  they 
are  anointed  all  over,  certain  servants  of  the  em- 
peror, having  prepared  gold  made  into  fine  powder, 
blow  it  through  hollow  canes  upon  their  naked 
bodies,  until  they  be  all  shining  from  the  foot  to  the 
head :  and  in  this  sort  they  sit  drinking  by  twenties, 
and  hundreds,  and  continue  in  drunkenness  some- 
times six  or  seven  days  together. 

"The  same  is  also  confirmed  by  a  letter  written 
into  Spain,  which  was  intercepted,  which  Mr.  Eobert 
Dudley  told  me  he  had  seen.  Upon  this  sight,  and 
for  the  abundance  of  gold  which  he  saw  in  the  city, 
the  images  of  gold  in  their  temples,  the  plates,  ar- 
mors, and  shields  of  gold  which  they  used  in  the 
wars,  he  called  it  El  Dorado." 

After  mentioning  in  detail  the  several  ill-fated 
expeditions  of  the  Spanish  to  find  the  El  Dorado, 
Raleigh  reviews  the  mass  of  evidence  in  favor  of  the 
existence  of  the  hidden  and  magnificent  city,  and 
as  gravely  relates  the  current  reports  of  other 
wonders  as  prodigious  as  this.  He  it  was  who  car- 
ried back  to  Europe  the  story  of  the  Amazons,  "be- 
ing very  desirous  to  understand  the  truth  of  those 
warlike  women,  because  of  some  it  is  believed,  of 
others  not.  And  although  I  digress  from  my  pur- 
pose, yet  I  will  set  down  that  which  hath  been  de- 
livered me  for  truth  of  those  women,  and  I  spake 
with  a  caique  or  lord  of  the  people,  that  told  me  he 
had  been  in  the  river  and  beyond  it.  .  .  .  They  are 
said  to  be  very  cruel  and  bloodthirsty,  especially  to 
such  as  offer  to  invade  their  territories.  These 
Amazons  have  likewise  great  stores  of  these  plates 
of  gold  which  they  recover  chiefly  by  exchange  for 
a  kind  of  green  stones. ' '    That  the  natures  of  these 


352         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

stern  ladies  had  a  softer  side  is  prettily  indicated 
by  Raleigh  in  the  statement  that  in  the  month  of 
April  "all  kings  of  the  border  assemble,  and  queens 
of  the  Amazons;  and  after  the  queens  have  chosen, 
the  rest  cast  lots  for  their  Valentines.  This  one 
month  they  feast,  dance,  and  drink  of  their  wines  in 
abundance;  and  the  moon  being  done,  they  all  de- 
part to  their  own  provinces.' ' 

Among  the  perils  that  beset  the  road  to  El  Dorado 
was  a  terrible  nation  of  men  with  no  heads  upon 
their  shoulders.  Raleigh  did  not  happen  to  en- 
counter them  during  his  voyage  up  the  Orinoco,  but 
nevertheless  he  took  pains  to  set  down  in  his  nar- 
rative, "which  though  it  may  be  thought  a  mere 
fable,  yet  for  mine  part  I  am  resolved  it  is  true,  be- 
cause every  child  in  the  provinces  of  Arromaia  and 
Canuri  affirm  the  same.  They  are  called  Ewaipa- 
noma;  they  are  reported  to  have  their  eyes  in  their 
shoulders,  and  their  mouths  in  the  middle  of  their 
breasts  and  that  a  long  train  of  hair  groweth  back- 
ward between  their  shoulders.7     The  son  of  Topi- 

i  "Her  father  loved  me,  oft  invited,  me, 
Still  questioned  me  the  story  of  my  life 
From  year  to  year,  the  battles,  sieges,  fortunes, 
That  I  have  pass'd. 

I  ran  it  through,  even  from  my  boyish  days 
To  the  very  moment  that  he  bade  me  tell  it: 
Wherein  I  spake  of  most  disastrous  chances, 
Of  moving  incidents  by  flood  and  field, 
Of  hair-breadth  'scapes  i'  the  imminent  deadly  breach 
Of  being  taken  by  the  insolent  foe, 
And  sold  to  slavery,  of  my  redemption  thence, 
And  portance  in  my  travel's  history: 
Wherein  of  antres  vast  and  deserts  idle, 
Rough  quarries,  rocks,  and  hills  whose  head  touch  heaven, 
It  was  my  hint  to  speak, — such  was   the   process; 
And  of  the  Cannibals  that  each  other  eat, 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  353 

awari,  which  I  brought  with  me  into  England  told 
me  that  they  are  the  most  mighty  men  of  all  the 
land,  and  nse  bows,  arrows,  and  clubs  thrice  as  big 
as  any  of  Guiana,  or  of  the  Orinoco,  and  that  one 
of  the  Iwarawakeri  took  a  prisoner  of  them  the  year 
before  our  arrival  there,  and  brought  him  into  the 
borders  of  Aromaia,  his  father's  country.  And 
farther  when  I  seemed  to  doubt  of  it,  he  told  me 
that  it  was  no  wonder  among  them,  but  that  they 
were  as  great  a  nation,  and  as  common  as  any  other 
in  all  the  provinces,  and  had  of  late  years  slain  many 
hundreds  of  his  father 's  people :  but  it  was  not  my 
chance  to  hear  of  them  until  I  was  come  away,  and 
if  I  had  but  spoken  but  one  word  of  it  while  I  was 
there,  I  might  have  brought  one  of  them  with  me  to 
put  the  matter  out  of  doubt.  Such  a  nation  was 
written  of  by  Mandeville 8  whose  reports  were 
holden  for  fables  many  years,  and  yet  since  the 
East  Indies  were  discovered,  we  find  his  relations 
true  of  all  things  as  heretofore  were  held  incredible. 
Whether  it  be  true  or  no,  the  matter  is  not  great, 
neither  can  there  be  any  profit  in  the  imagination. 
For  my  own  part,  I  saw  them  not,  but  I  am  re- 

The  Anthropophagi,  and  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  heneath  their  shoulders.     This  to  hear 
Would  Desdemona  seriously  incline." 
— Shakespeare.     {The  Tragedy  of  Othello,  the  Moor  of  Venice.) 

s  The  date  of  the  first  English  edition  of  Sir  John  Mandeville's 
book  of  travels  was  1499.  According  to  his  own  account  he  dis- 
covered this  and  other  wonders  in  the  kingdom  of  Ethiopia.  The 
book  was  widely  read,  very  popular  in  several  languages,  and  was 
one  of  the  earliest  printed  books,  being  published  in  Germany  about 
1475.  Recent  investigations  have  shown  that  almost  the  whole  of 
the  matter  was  cribbed  from  other  authors,  and  that  as  a  genuine 
explorer,  Sir  John  Mandeville  was  the  Dr,  Frederick  Cook  of  his 
age. 


354         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

solved  that  so  many  people  did  not  all  combine  or 
forethink  to  make  the  report. 

''When  I  came  to  Cumana  in  the  West  Indies, 
afterwards  by  chance  I  spake  with  a  Spaniard 
dwelling  not  far  from  thence,  a  man  of  great  travel, 
and  after  he  knew  that  I  had  been  in  Guiana,  and 
so  far  directly  west  as  Caroli,  the  first  question  he 
asked  me  was,  whether  I  had  seen  any  of  the 
Ewaipanoma,  which  are  those  without  heads:  who 
being  esteemed  a  most  honest  man  of  his  word,  and 
in  all  things  else,  told  me  he  had  seen  many  of  them. " 

That  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh,  the  finest  flower  of  man- 
hood that  blossomed  in  his  age,  should  have  believed 
these  and  other  wonders  does  not  belittle  his  fame. 
He  lived  and  fought  and  sailed  in  a  world  that  had 
not  been  explored  and  mapped  and  charted  and 
photographed  and  written  about  until  all  the  ro- 
mance and  mystery  were  driven  out  of  it.  The 
globe  had  not  shrunk  to  a  globule  around  which  ex- 
cursionists whiz  in  forty  days  on  a  coupon  ticket. 
Men  truly  great,  endowed  with  the  courage  and  re- 
sourcefulness of  epic  heroes,  and  the  simple  faith  of 
little  children,  were  voyaging  into  unknown  seas  to 
find  strange  lands,  ready  to  die,  and  right  cheerfully, 
for  God  and  their  King.  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  was 
bound  up,  heart  and  soul,  in  winning  Guiana  as  a 
great  empire  for  England,  and  when  his  enemies  at 
home  scouted  his  reports  and  accused  him  of  trying 
to  deceive  the  nation  with  his  tales  of  El  Dorado,  he 
replied  with  convincing  sincerity  and  pathos : 

"A  strange  fancy  it  had  been  in  me,  to  have  per- 
suaded my  own  son  whom  I  have  lost,  and  to  have 
persuaded  my  wife  to  have  adventured  the  eight 
thousand  pounds  which  his  Majesty  gave  them  for 
Shelborne,  and  when  that  was  spent,  to  persuade 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  355 

my  wife  to  sell  her  house  at  Mitcham  in  hope  of  en- 
riching them  by  the  mines  of  Guiana,  if  I  myself  had 
not  seen  them  with  my  own  eyes!  For  being  old 
and  weakly,  thirteen  years  in  prison,  and  not  used 
to  the  air,  to  travel  and  to  watching,  it  being  ten 
to  one  that  I  should  ever  have  returned, — and  of 
which,  by  reason  of  my  violent  sickness,  and  the 
long  continuance  thereof,  no  man  had  any  hope, 
what  madness  would  have  made  me  undertake  the 
journey,  but  the  assurance  of  this  mine."9 

He  was  referring  here  to  his  fourth  and  last  voyage 
in  quest  of  El  Dorado.  Elizabeth  was  dead,  and 
James  I  bore  Ealeigh  no  good  will.  After  the  long 
imprisonment,  for  thirteen  years  under  suspended 
sentence  of  death,  he  was  permitted  to  leave  the 
Tower  and  embark  with  a  fleet  of  thirteen  ships  in 
1617,  it  being  particularly  enjoined  that  he  should 
engage  in  no  hostilities  with  his  dearest  enemy, 
Spain.  It  is  generally  believed  that  King  James 
hoped  and  expected  that  such  a  clash  of  interests 
as  was  almost  inevitable  in  the  attempt  to  plant  the 
English  flag  in  Guiana  would  give  him  a  pretext  to 
send  Ealeigh  to  the  headman's  block.  It  was  on  this 
voyage  that  Ealeigh  lost  his  eldest  son,  besides  sev- 
eral of  his  ships,  and  utterly  failed  in  the  high- 
hearted purpose  of  setting  up  a  kingdom  whose  cap- 
ital city  should  be  that  splendid  lost  city  of  Manoa. 
He  was  unable  to  avoid  battles  with  the  insolent 
Spanish,  it  was  in  one  of  these  that  his  son  was 
killed,  and  when  he  returned  to  England,  the  price 
was  exacted  and  paid.  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  was  exe- 
cuted in  the  palace  yard,  Westminster,  and  thus  per- 
ished one  who  brought  great  glory  to  England  by 
land  and  sea. 

9  Cayley's  Life  of  Raleigh. 


356         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Concerning  El  Dorado,  Baleigh  had  given  cre- 
dence to  no  more  than  was  believed  in  his  time  by  the 
Spanish  of  every  port  from  San  Marta  on  the  Carri- 
bean  to  Quito  on  the  Pacific.  The  old  chronicles  are 
full  of  it.  One  instance,  chosen  almost  at  random 
from  many  of  the  same  kind  is  quoted  by  De  Pons  in 
his  History  of  Caraccas.10 

"When  the  wild  Indian  appeared  before  the  Span- 
ish governor  of  Guiana,  Don  Manuel  Centurion  of 
Angostura,  he  was  assailed  with  questions  which  he 
answered  with  as  much  perspicuity  and  precision  as 
could  be  expected  from  one  whose  most  intelligible 
language  consisted  in  signs.  He,  however,  suc- 
ceeded in  making  them  understand  that  there  was  on 
the  border  of  Lake  Parima  a  city  whose  inhabitants 
were  civilized  and  regularly  disciplined  to  war.  He 
boasted  a  great  deal  of  the  beauty  of  its  buildings, 
the  neatness  of  its  streets,  the  regularity  of  its 
squares,  and  the  riches  of  its  people.  According  to 
him,  the  roofs  of  its  principal  houses  were  either  of 
gold  or  silver.  The  high-priest,  instead  of  pontifical 
robes,  rubbed  his  whole  body  with  the  fat  of  the 
turtle ;  then  they  blew  upon  it  some  gold  dust,  so  as 
to  cover  his  whole  body  with  it.  In  this  attire,  he 
performed  the  religious  ceremonies.  The  Indian 
sketched  on  a  table  with  a  bit  of  charcoal  the  city  of 
which  he  had  given  a  description. 

"His  ingenuity  seduced  the  governor.  He  asked 
him  to  serve  as  a  guide  to  some  Spaniards  he  wished 
to  send  on  this  discovery,  to  which  the  Indian  con- 
sented.    Sixty  Spaniards  offered  themselves  for  the 

10  Translation  of  J.  A.  Van  Heuvel  in  his  "El  Dorado.  Being  a 
Narrative  of  the  Circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  reports  in  the  Six- 
teenth Century  of  the  Existence  of  a  Rich  and  Splendid  City  in 
South  America."     (1844.) 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  357 

undertaking,  and  among  others  Don  Antonio  Santos. 
They  set  off  and  traveled  nearly  five  hundred  leagues 
to  the  south,  through  the  most  frightful  roads. 
Hunger,  the  swamps,  the  woods,  the  precipices,  the 
heat,  the  rains,  destroyed  almost  all.  When  those 
who  survived  thought  themselves  four  or  five  days' 
journey  from  the  capital  city  and  hoped  to  reach  the 
end  of  all  their  troubles,  and  the  object  of  their  de- 
sires, the  Indian  disappeared  in  the  night. 

' '  This  event  dismayed  the  Spaniards.  They  knew 
not  where  they  were.  By  degrees  they  all  perished 
but  Santos  to  whom  it  occurred  to  disguise  himself 
as  an  Indian.  He  threw  off  his  clothes,  covered  his 
whole  body  with  red  paint,  and  introduced  himself 
among  them  by  his  knowledge  of  many  of  their  lan- 
guages. He  was  a  long  time  among  them,  until  at 
length  he  fell  within  the  power  of  the  Portugese 
established  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Negro.  They 
embarked  him  on  the  river  Amazon  and  after  a  very 
long  detention,  sent  him  back  to  his  country." 

In  this  very  brief  survey  of  the  growth  and  re- 
sults of  the  El  Dorado  legend,  there  is  no  room  even 
to  mention  many  of  the  most  dramatic  and  disas- 
trous expeditions  which  it  inspired  through  the  six- 
teenth century.  It  was,  in  truth,  the  greatest  lost 
treasure  story  that  the  world  has  ever  known.  The 
age  of  those  splendid  adventurers  has  vanished,  ex- 
ploration has  proved  that  the  golden  city  hidden  in 
Guiana  was  a  myth,  but  now  and  again  investiga- 
tion has  harked  back  to  the  source  of  the  tradition 
of  the  gilded  man,  at  the  mountain  lake  of  Guatavita 
on  the  lofty  tableland  of  Bogota.  Hernan  de  Que- 
sada,  first  to  try  to  drain  the  lake,  was  followed  a 
few  years  later  by  Antonio  de  Sepulveda  who  re- 
covered treasure  from  the  bottom  to  the  amount  of 


358         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

more  than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  besides  a 
magnificent  emerald  which  was  sold  at  Madrid. 

Professor  Liborio  Zerda,  of  the  University  of  Co- 
lombia at  Bogota,  has  published  his  results  of  an 
exhaustive  study  of  the  legend  and  the  evidence  to 
show  that  the  ceremonies  of  the  gilded  man  were 
once  performed  at  Guatavita.  He  describes  a  group 
of  figures  beaten  out  of  raw  gold  which  was  recov- 
ered from  the  lake  and  is  now  in  the  museum  of  that 
city.  It  represents  the  chief  and  attendants  upon  a 
balsa,  or  raft,  and  is  considered  to  be  a  striking  con- 
firmation of  the  tradition. 

"Undoubtedly  this  piece  represents  the  religious 
ceremony  which  Zamora  has  described,"  writes  Pro- 
fessor Zerda,  "with  the  caique  of  Guatavita  sur- 
rounded by  Indian  priests,  on  the  raft  which  was 
taken  on  the  day  of  the  ceremony  to  the  middle  of  the 
lake.  It  may  be,  as  some  persons  believe,  that  Siecha 
lagune,  and  not  the  present  Guatavita,  was  the  place 
of  the  dorado  ceremony,  and  consequently  the  an- 
cient Guatavita.  But  everything  seems  to  indicate 
that  there  was  really  once  a  dorado  at  Bogota." 

Zamora,  who  wrote  in  the  seventeenth  century,  re- 
corded that  the  Indians  believed  the  spirit  of  the  lake 
had  built  a  magnificent  palace  beneath  the  water 
where  she  dwelt  and  demanded  offerings  of  gold 
and  jewels,  which  belief  spread  over  all  the  nation  of 
the  Muysca  and  also  among  strangers  "who  all, 
stricken  by  this  wonderful  occurrence,  came  to  offer 
their  gifts  by  many  different  routes,  of  which  even 
to-day  some  signs  remain.  In  the  center  of  the  lake 
they  threw  their  offerings  with  ridiculous  and  vain 
ceremonies." 

In  1823,  Captain  Charles  Stuart  Cochran  of  the 
English  navy  was  traveling  in  Colombia  and  he  be- 


THE  QUEST  OF  EL  DORADO  359 

came  keenly  interested  in  the  lake  of  Guatavita  and 
the  chances  of  recovering  the  lost  treasure  by  means 
of  a  drainage  project.  He  delved  into  the  old  Span- 
ish records,  assembled  the  traditions  that  were  still 
alive  among  the  Indians  and  was  convinced  that  a 
fabulous  accumulation  of  gold  awaited  the  enterprise 
of  modern  engineers.  One  of  the  ancient  accounts, 
so  he  discovered,  related  that  to  escape  the  cruel 
persecution  of  the  Spanish  conquerors  the  wealthy 
natives  threw  their  gold  into  the  lake,  and  that  the 
last  caique  cast  therein  the  burdens  of  fifty  men 
laden  with  gold  dust  and  nuggets. 

Captain  Cochran  did  not  succeed  in  finding  the 
funds  needed  to  undertake  the  tempting  task,  but  his 
information  was  preserved,  and  made  some  stir  in 
England  and  France.  It  was  reserved  for  twentieth 
century  treasure  seekers  to  attack  the  sacred  lake 
of  Guatavita,  and  to  capitalize  the  venture  as  a  joint 
stock  company  with  headquarters  in  London  and  a 
glittering  prospectus  offering  investors  an  oppor- 
tunity of  obtaining  shares  in  a  prospective  hoard  of 
gold  and  jewels  worth  something  like  a  billion  dol- 
lars. A  concession  was  obtained  from  the  govern- 
ment of  Colombia,  and  work  begun  in  1903. 

As  an  engineering  problem,  draining  the  lake 
seemed  practicable  and  comparatively  inexpensive. 
It  is  a  deep,  transparent  pool,  hardly  more  than  a 
thousand  feet  wide,  almost  circular,  and  set  like  a 
jewel  in  a  cup-like  depression  near  the  top  of  a  cone- 
shaped  peak,  several  hundred  feet  above  the  nearby 
plateau.  The  tunnel  therefore  had  only  to  pierce 
the  hill-side  to  enter  the  lake  and  let  the  water  flow 
out  to  the  plain  below.  It  was  estimated  that  the 
shaft  had  to  be  driven  a  distance  of  eleven  hundred 
feet. 


360         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

A  small  village  of  huts  was  built  to  shelter  the 
engineers  and  laborers,  and  rock  drilling  machinery 
set  up  not  far  from  the  still  visible  remains  of  one  of 
the  shafts  dug  by  the  Spanish  treasure  seekers  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  No  serious  obstacles  were 
encountered  until  the  tunnel  had  tapped  the  bottom 
of  the  lake  and  the  water  began  to  run  off  through 
carefully  regulated  sluices.  Then,  as  the  surface 
lowered,  and  the  submerged  mud  was  exposed  to  the 
air,  it  solidified  in  a  cement-like  substance  which  was 
almost  impossible  to  penetrate.  The  treasure  must 
have  sunk  many  feet  deep  in  this  mud  during  four 
or  five  centuries,  and  the  workmen  found  it  so  baffling 
that  operations  were  suspended.  The  promoters  of 
the  enterprise  found  this  unexpected  obstacle  so 
much  more  than  they  had  bargained  for  that  they 
had  to  abandon  it  for  lack  of  resources.  In  their 
turn  they  had  been  thwarted  by  the  spirit  of  the 
gilded  man,  and  the  treasure  of  El  Dorado  is  still 
beyond  the  grasp  of  its  eager  pursuers. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   WIZARDY   OF   THE   DIVINING  BOD 

Washington  Irving  was  so  thoroughly  versed  in 
the  lore  of  buried  treasure  that  the  necromancy  of 
the  divining  rod,  as  a  potent  aid  to  this  kind  of  in- 
dustry, had  received  his  studious  attention.  For 
many  centuries,  the  magic  wand  of  hazel,  or  various 
other  woods,  has  been  used,  and  implicitly  believed 
in,  as  a  guide  to  the  whereabouts  of  secrets  hidden 
underground,  whether  of  running  water,  veins  of 
metal,  or  buried  treasure.  There  is  nothing  far- 
fetched, or  contrary  to  the  fact,  in  the  lively  picture 
of  Dr.  Knipperhausen,  that  experienced  magician, 
who  helped  Wolfert  Webber  seek  the  treasure  con- 
cealed by  pirates  on  the  Manhattan  Island  of  the 
Knickerbocker  Dutch  of  the  "Tales  of  a  Traveler.' ' 

"He  had  passed  some  years  of  his  youth  among 
the  Harz  mountains  of  Germany,  and  had  derived 
much  valuable  instruction  from  the  miners,  touching 
the  mode  of  seeking  treasure  buried  in  the  earth. 
He  had  prosecuted  his  studies  also  under  a  traveling 
sage  who  united  the  mysteries  of  medicine  with 
magic  and  legerdemain.  His  mind  therefore  had 
become  stored  with  all  kinds  of  mystic  lore;  he  had 
dabbled  a  little  in  astrology,  alchemy,  divination; 
knew  how  to  detect  stolen  money,  and  to  tell  where 
springs  of  water  lay  hidden ;  in  a  word,  by  the  dark 
nature  of  his  knowledge  he  had  acquired  the  name 

361 


362         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

of  the  High-German-Doctor,  which  is  pretty  nearly 
equivalent  to  that  of  necromancer. 

'''The  doctor  had  often  heard  rumors  of  treasure 
being  buried  in  various  parts  of  the  island,  and  had 
long  been  anxious  to  get  on  the  traces  of  it.  No 
sooner  were  Wolfert's  waking  and  sleeping  vagaries 
confided  to  him,  than  he  beheld  in  them  confirmed 
symptoms  of  a  case  of  money  digging,  and  lost  no 
time  in  probing  it  to  the  bottom.  Wolf  ert  had  long 
been  sorely  oppressed  in  mind  by  the  golden  secret, 
and  as  a  family  physician  is  a  kind  of  father  con- 
fessor, he  was  glad  of  any  opportunity  of  unburden- 
ing himself.  So  far  from  curing,  the  doctor  caught 
the  malady  from  his  patient.  The  circumstances 
unfolded  to  him  awakened  all  his  cupidity;  he  had 
not  a  doubt  of  money  being  buried  somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  mysterious  crosses  and  offered 
to  join  Wolfert  in  the  search. 

' '  He  informed  him  that  much  secrecy  and  caution 
must  be  observed  in  enterprises  of  this  kind;  that 
money  is  only  to  be  digged  for  at  night ;  with  certain 
forms  and  ceremonies,  and  burning  of  drugs ;  the  re- 
peating of  mystic  words,  and  above  all,  that  the  seek- 
ers must  first  be  provided  with  a  divining  rod,  which 
had  the  wonderful  property  of  pointing  to  the  very 
spot  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  under  which  treas- 
ure lay  hidden.  As  the  doctor  had  given  much  of 
his  mind  to  these  matters,  he  charged  himself  with 
all  the  necessary  preparations,  and,  as  the  quarter 
of  the  moon  was  propitious,  he  undertook  to  have 
the  divining  rod  ready  by  a  certain  night. 

"Wolfert's  heart  leaped  with  joy  at  having  met 
with  so  learned  and  able  a  coadjutor.  Everything 
went  on  secretly,  but  swimmingly.  The  doctor  had 
many  consultations  with  his  patient,  and  the  good 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  363 

woman  of  the  household  lauded  the  comforting  effect 
of  his  visits.  In  the  meantime  the  wonderful  divin- 
ing rod,  that  great  key  to  nature 's  secrets,  was  *duly 
prepared. 

"The  following  note  was  found  appended  to  this 
passage  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Knickerbocker. 
'There  has  been  much  written  against  the  divining 
rod  by  those  light  minds  who  are  ever  ready  to  scoff 
at  the  mysteries  of  nature ;  but  I  fully  join  with  Dr. 
Knipperhausen  in  giving  it  my  faith.  I  shall  not  in- 
sist upon  its  efficacy  in  discovering  the  concealment 
of  stolen  goods,  the  boundary  stones  of  fields,  the 
traces  of  robbers  and  murderers,  or  even  the  ex- 
istence of  subterranean  springs  and  streams  of 
water ;  albeit,  I  think  these  properties  not  to  be  read- 
ily discredited;  but  of  its  potency  in  discovering 
veins  of  precious  metal,  and  hidden  sums  of  money 
and  jewels,  I  have  not  the  least  doubt.  Some  said 
that  the  rod  turned  only  in  the  hands  of  persons  who 
had  been  born  in  particular  months  of  the  year; 
hence  astrologers  had  recourse  to  planetary  influ- 
ences when  they  would  procure  a  talisman.  Others 
declared  that  the  properties  of  the  rod  were  either 
an  effect  of  chance  or  the  fraud  of  the  holder,  or  the 
work  of  the  devil.    .    .    ." 

The  worthy  and  learned  Mr.  Knickerbocker  might 
have  gone  on  to  quote  authorities  by  the  dozen.  This 
weighty  argument  of  his  is  not  delivered  with  a  wink 
to  the  reader.  He  is  engaged  in  no  solemn  foolery. 
If  one  desires  to  find  pirates'  gold,  it  is  really  essen- 
tial to  believe  in  the  divining  rod  and  devoutly  obey 
its  magic  messages.  This  is  proven  to  the  hilt  by 
that  very  scholarly  Abbe  Le  Lorrain  de  Vallemont 
of  France  whose  exhaustive  volume  was  published 


364         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

in  1693  with  the  title  of  La  Physique  Occulte,  or 
1 '  Treatise  on  the  Divining  Bod  and  its  Uses  for  the 
Discovery  of  Springs  of  Water,  Metallic  Veins,  Hid- 
den Treasure,  Thieves,  and  Escaped  Murderers.' ' 
In  his  preface  he  politely  sneers  at  those  scholars 
who  consider  the  study  of  the  divining  rod  as  an  idle 
pursuit  and  shows  proper  vexation  toward  the  igno- 
rance and  prejudice  which  are  hostile  to  such  re- 
searches. 

The  author  then  indicates  that  the  action  of  the 
divining  rod  is  to  be  explained  by  the  theory  of  Cor- 
puscular Philosophy,1  and  by  way  of  concrete  argu- 
ment, refers  to  the  most  famous  case  in  the  ancient 
annals  of  this  art. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  my  work  would  have  been  in- 
complete, had  I  not  seen  Jacques  Aymar,  and  that  the 
objection  might  have  been  raised  that  I  had  only 
argued  about  statements  not  generally  accepted. 
This  now  famous  man  came  to  Paris  on  January 
21st,  1693.  I  saw  him  two  or  three  hours  a  day  for 
nearly  a  month,  and  my  readers  may  rest  assured 
that  during  that  time  I  examined  him  very  closely. 
It  is  a  positive  fact  that  the  divining  rod  turned  in 
his  hands  in  the  direction  of  springs  of  water,  pre- 
cious metals,  thieves,  and  escaped  murderers.  He 
does  not  know  why.  If  he  knew  the  physical  cause, 
and  had  sufficient  intellect  to  reason  about  it,  I  am 
convinced  that,  whenever  he  undertook  an  experi- 
ment he  would  succeed.  But  a  peasant  who  can 
neither  read  nor  write  will  know  still  less  about  at- 
mosphere, volume,  motion  of  corpuscles  distributed 
in  the  air,  etc.    He  is  still  more  ignorant  as  to  how 

i  "Corpuscular  philosophy,  that  which  attempts  to  account  for  the 
phenomena  of  nature,  by  the  motion,  figure,  rest,  position,  etc.,  of 
the  minute  particles  of  matter." — Webster's  Dictionary. 


L 

ID 

— 

IQ 

—■ 

'— 

S 

■- 

o 

■■s 

•fl 

— 

o 

L 

<=. 

M 

B 

• 

g 

i 

> 

•3 

O 

v 

» 

e 

i 

a 

bi 

B 

4 

\ 

- 

a 

s 

^ 

c  £ 


o 


WIZARD  Y  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  365 

these  corpuscles  can  be  disturbed  and  cease  to  pro- 
duce the  motion  and  dip  of  the  rod.  Neither  is  he 
capable  of  recognizing  how  essential  to  success  it  is 
for  him  to  know  whether  he  is  in  a  fit  condition  to  be 
susceptible  to  the  action  of  the  corpuscles  which  are 
thrown  off  from  the  objects  toward  which  the  rod 
inclines." 

"I  do  not  deny  that  there  are  cheats  who  profess 
belief  in  the  rod,  and  put  it  to  too  many  uses,  just 
as  quacks,  with  a  good  remedy  for  a  special  ailment, 
hold  themselves  up  to  contempt  by  wishing  to  palm 
it  off  as  a  cure-all.  To  this  I  add  that  people  will  be 
found  who,  endowed  with  greater  and  more  delicate 
sensibility,  will  possess  still  more  abundantly  than 
he  (Jacques  Aymar)  the  faculty  of  discovering 
springs  of  water,  metallic  veins,  and  hidden  treasure, 
as  well  as  thieves  and  escaped  murderers.  We  have 
already  received  tidings  from  Lyons  of  a  youth  of 
eighteen,  who  surpasses  by  a  long  way  Jacques  Ay- 
mar.  And  anyone  can  see  in  Paris  to-day,  at  the 
residence  of  Mons.  Geoffrey,  late  sheriff  of  that  city, 
a  young  man  who  discovers  gold  buried  underground 
by  experiencing  violent  tremors  the  moment  that  he 
walks  over  it. '  ■ 

M.  de  Vallemont  has  no  sympathy  for  those  credu- 
lous students  of  natural  philosophy  who  have 
brought  the  science  into  disrepute.  They  will  scoff 
at  the  divining  rod  and  yet  swallow  the  grossest 
frauds  without  so  much  as  blinking.  He  proceeds 
to  give  an  illustration,  and  it  will  bear  translating 
because  surely  it  unfolds  a  unique  yarn  of  buried 
treasure  and  has  all  the  charm  of  novelty. 

' '  Upon  this  subject  there  is  nothing  more  enter- 
taining than  that  which  took  place  at  the  end  of  the 
last  century,  with  regard  to  a  boy  who  journeyed 


366         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

through  several  towns  exhibiting  a  golden  tooth 
which  he  declared  had  grown  in  the  usual  way. 

''In  the  year  1595,  towards  Easter,  a  rumor 
spread  that  there  was  in  the  village  of  Weildorst  in 
Silesia,  Bohemia,  a  child  seven  years  of  age  who  had 
lost  all  his  teeth,  and  that  in  the  place  of  the  last 
molar  a  gold  tooth  had  appeared.  No  story  ever 
created  such  a  stir.  Scholars  took  it  up.  In  a  short 
time,  doctors  and  philosophers  came  forward  to  gain 
knowledge  and  to  pass  judgment,  as  though  it  were  a 
case  worthy  of  their  consideration.  The  first  to  dis- 
tinguish himself  was  Jacobus  Horstius,  Professor 
of  Medicine  in  the  University  of  Helmstad.  This 
doctor,  in  a  paper  which  he  caused  to  be  printed, 
demonstrated  that  this  golden  tooth  was  partly  a 
work  of  nature  and  partly  miraculous;  and  he  de- 
clared that  in  whatever  light  one  viewed  it,  it  was 
manifestly  a  consolation  sent  from  above  to  the 
Christians  of  Bohemia,  on  whom  the  Turks  were 
then  inflicting  the  worst  barbarities. 

"Martinus  Rulandus  published  simultaneously 
with  Horstius  the  story  of  the  golden  tooth.  It  is 
true  that  two  years  later  Johannes  Ingolsteterus  re- 
futed the  story  of  Rulandus,  but  the  latter  in  the 
same  year,  1597,  not  in  the  least  discouraged,  de- 
fended his  work  against  the  attacks  of  Ingolsteterus. 

"Andreas  Libavius  then  entered  the  lists,  and  pub- 
lished a  book  in  which  he  recounted  what  had  been 
said  for  and  against  the  golden  tooth.  This  gave 
rise  to  great  disputes  concerning  a  matter  which 
ultimately  proved  to  be  a  somewhat  clumsy  decep- 
tion. The  child  was  taken  to  Breslau,  where  every- 
body hastened  to  see  so  wonderful  a  novelty.  They 
brought  him  before  a  number  of  doctors,  assembled 
in  great  perplexity  to  examine  the  famous  golden 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  367 

tooth.  Amongst  them  was  Christophorus  Rhum- 
baumius,  a  professor  of  medicine,  who  was  most 
anxious  to  see  before  believing. 

1  'First  of  all,  a  goldsmith,  wishing  to  satisfy  him- 
self that  the  tooth  was  of  gold,  applied  to  it  his 
touch-stone,  and  the  line  left  on  the  stone  appeared, 
to  the  naked  eye,  to  be  in  real  gold,  but  on  the  appli- 
cation of  aqua  fortis  to  this  line,  every  trace  disap- 
peared, and  a  part  of  the  swindle  was  exposed. 
Christophorus  Ehumbaumius,  an  intelligent  and 
skillful  man,  on  examining  the  tooth  more  closely, 
perceived  in  it  a  little  hole,  and,  inserting  a  probe, 
found  that  it  was  simply  a  sheet  of  copper  probably 
washed  with  gold.  He  could  with  ease  have  re- 
moved the  copper  covering  had  not  the  trickster, 
who  was  taking  the  child  from  town  to  town,  opposed 
it,  complaining  bitterly  of  the  injury  that  was  being 
done  him  by  thus  depriving  him  of  the  chance  of  tak- 
ing money  from  the  curious  and  the  credulous. 

"The  swindler  and  child  disappeared,  and  no  one 
knows  to  this  day  exactly  what  became  of  them.  But 
because  learned  men  have  been  duped  now  and  then, 
that  is  no  reason  for  perpetual  doubt  .  .  .  and 
although  the  story  of  the  golden  tooth  be  false,  we 
should  be  wrong  capriciously  to  reject  that  of  the 
hazel  rod  which  has  become  so  famous." 

Having  extinguished  the  skeptics,  as  one  snuffs  a 
candle,  by  means  of  this  admirable  tale  of  the  golden 
tooth,  the  learned  author  asserts  that  "it  must  de- 
note great  ignorance  of  France,  and  even  of  books, 
never  to  have  heard  of  the  divining  rod.  For  I  can 
say  with  certainty  that  I  have  met  quite  by  chance, 
both  in  Paris  and  the  provinces,  more  than  fifty  per- 
sons who  have  used  this  simple  instrument  in  order 
to  find  water,  precious  metals  and  hidden  treasure, 


368         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

and  in  whose  hands  it  has  actually  turned.  'It  is 
more  reasonable, '  says  Father. Malebranche,  'to  be- 
lieve one  man  who  says,  I  have  seen,  than  a  million 
others  who  talk  at  random.' 

"It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  determine  exactly  the 
period  at  which  the  divining  rod  first  came  into  use. 
I  have  discovered  no  reference  to  it  by  writers  pre- 
vious to  the  middle  of  the  Fifteenth  century.  It  is 
frequently  referred  to  in  the  Testament  de  Basile 
Valentin,  a  Benedictine  monk  who  flourished  about 
1490,2  and  I  observe  that  he  speaks  of  it  in  a  way 
which  might  lead  one  to  suppose  that  the  use  of  this 
rod  was  known  before  that  period. 

"Might  we  venture  to  advance  the  theory  that  the 
Divine  Bod  was  known  and  used  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  ago  1 3    Are  we  to  count  for  naught  Cic- 

2  Andrew  Lang  writes  in  a  chapter  on  the  divining  rod  in  Custom 
and  Myth: 

"The  great  authority  for  the  modern  history  of  the  divining 
rod  is  a  work  published  by  M.  Chevreul  in  Paris  in  1854.  M. 
Chevreul,  probably  with  truth,  regarded  the  wand  as  much  on  a 
par  with  the  turning  tables  which,  in  1854,  attracted  a  good  deal 
of  attention.  .  .  .  M.  Chevreul  could  find  no  earlier  book  on 
the  twig  than  the  Testament  du  Frere,  Basile  Valentin,  a  holy  man 
who  flourished  (the  twig)  about  1413,  but  whose  treatise  is  possibly 
apocryphal.  According  to  Basile  Valentin,  the  twig  was  regarded 
with  awe  by  ignorant  laboring  men,  which  is  still  true." 

8  "And  Jacob  took  him  rods  of  green  poplar,  and  of  the  hazel  and 
chestnut  tree;  and  pilled  white  strakes  in  them,  and  made  the  white 
appear  which  was  in  the  rods. 

"And  he  set  the  rods  which  he  had  pilled  before  the  flocks  in  the 
gutters  in  the  watering  troughs  when  the  flocks  came  to  drink,  that 
they  should  conceive  when  they  came  to  drink."  (Genesis  xxx, 
37-38.) 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Go  on  before  the  people,  and 
take  with  thee  of  the  elders  of  Israel;  and  thy  rod,  wherewith  thou 
smotest  the  river,  take  in  thy  hand,  and  go. 

"Behold,  I  will  stand  before  thee  there  upon  the  rock  in  Horeb; 
and  thou  sbalt  smite  the  rock,  and  there  shall  come  water  out  of  it, 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  369 

ero's  illusion  to  divination  by  means  of  the  rod,  at 
the  end  of  the  first  book  of  his  'De  Officiis,'  'If  all 
that  we  need  for  our  nourishment  and  clothing  comes 
to  us,  as  people  say,  by  means  of  some  divine  rod, 
then  each  of  us  should  relinquish  public  affairs  and 
devote  all  his  time  to  the  study. ' 

"Varro,  according  to  Vetranius  Maurus,  left 
a  satire  called  'Virgula  Divina,'  which  was  often 
quoted  by  Nonius  Marcellus  in  his  book  entitled  de 
Proprietate  sermonum.  But  what  serves  to  con- 
vince me  that  Cicero  had  in  his  mind  the  hazel  twig, 
and  that  it  was  known  at  that  period,  is  the  passage 
he  quotes  from  Ennius,  in  the  first  half  of  his  'De 
Divinatione, '  in  which  the  poet,  scoffing  at  those  who 
for  a  drachma  profess  to  teach  the  art  of  discover- 
ing hidden  treasure,  says  to  them,  'I  will  give  it  you 
with  pleasure,  but  it  will  be  paid  out  of  the  treasure 
found  according  to  your  method.'  " 

And  so  this  seventeenth  century  Frenchman,  his 
manner  as  wise  as  a  tree-full  of  owls,  drones  along 
from  one  musty  authority  to  another  in  defense  of 
the  mystic  powers  of  the  divining  rod.  He  mar- 
shals them  in  batteries  of  heavy  artillery — names  of 
scholars  and  alleged  scientists  who  made  a  great 
noise  in  their  far-off  times  when  the  world  was 
younger  and  more  given  to  wonderment.  The  dis- 
cussions that  raged  among  those  Dry-as-dusts  have 
interest  to-day  because  the  doctrine  of  the  divining 
rod  is  still  vigorously  alive  and  its  rites  are  prac- 
ticed in  every  civilized  country.  Call  it  what  you 
will,  a  curiously  surviving  superstition  or  a  natural 
mystery,  the  ' '  dowser ' '  with  his  forked  twig  of  hazel 

that  the  people  may  drink.  And  Moses  did  so  in  the  sight  of  the 
elders  of  Israel."     \  Exodus  xvii,  5-6.) 


370         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

or  willow  still  commands  a  large  following  of  be- 
lievers and  his  services  are  sought,  in  hundreds  of 
instances  every  year,  to  discover  springs  of  water 
and  hidden  treasure.  Learned  societies  have  not 
done  with  debating  the  case,  and  the  literature  of 
the  phenomenon  is  in  process  of  making.  No  one, 
however,  has  contributed  more  formidable  ammuni- 
tion than  M.  de  Vallemont,  who  could  discharge  such 
broadsides  as  this : 

'  'Father  Eoberti,  who  writes  in  the  strongest 
terms  against  the  divining  rod,  nevertheless  admits, 
in  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  that  the  indications  on 
which  the  most  scholarly  of  men  set  to  work  to  dis- 
cover mineral  soil  are  all  more  or  less  unreliable, 
and  result  in  endless  mistakes. 

"  'What!'  says  this  Jesuit  father,  'is  it  possible 
that  people  are  willing  to  attribute  greater  knowl- 
edge and  judgment  to  a  rough  and  lifeless  piece  of 
wood  than  to  hundreds  of  enlightened  men?  They 
survey  fields,  mountains  and  valleys,  devoting  scru- 
pulous attention  to  everything  that  comes  under 
their  notice ;  not  a  trace  of  metal  do  they  discover ; 
and  if  they  happen  to  suspect  that  there  might  be 
such  a  thing  at  a  certain  spot,  they  confess  that  their 
surmise  may  be  quite  unfounded,  and  that  every  day 
they  learn  to  their  sorrow,  after  infinite  labor  and 
suspense,  that  their  signs  are  altogether  deceptive. 

*  *  '  Such  a  one  as  Goclenius,4  however,  armed  with 
his  fork,  will  wander  over  the  same  ground,  and  led 
by  that  instrument,  clearer-sighted  than  the  wisest 
of  men,  will  infallibly  come  to  a  standstill  over  treas- 
ures hidden  in  the  earth.  Excavations  will  be  made 
at  the  spot  indicated  and  the  treasures  will  be  laid 

*  Goclenius  was  a  diviner  who  also  professed  to  make  "magnetic 
cures," 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  371 

bare.  My  dear  reader,  do  you  wish  me  to  speak 
candidly?  It  is  the  Devil  who  is  guiding  Goclen- 
ius.'  " 

In  this  emphatic  statement  of  the  devout  French 
priest  of  two  centuries  ago  is  to  be  traced  the  still 
lingering  superstition  of  an  infernal  partnership  in 
buried  treasure.  It  is  to  be  found  in  scores  of 
coastwise  legends  of  pirates '  gold  (no  Kidd  story  is 
properly  decorated  without  its  guardian  demon  or 
menacing  ghost),  and  the  divining  rod,  handed  down 
from  an  age  of  witchcraft,  necromancy,  and  black 
magic,  deserves  a  place  in  the  kit  of  every  well- 
equipped  treasure  seeker.  Sober,  hard-headed 
Scotchmen  from  Glasgow  employ  a  Yorkshire 
"dowser"  to  search  for  the  treasure  lost  in  the 
Florencia  galleon  in  Tobermory  Bay,  and  he  shows 
them,  and  they  are  convinced,  that  he  can  tell 
whether  it  be  gold,  or  silver,  or  copper,  which  exerts 
its  occult  influence  over  his  divining  rod.5  This 
happens  in  the  year  1906,  mind  you,  but  our  ardent 
investigator,  M.  de  Vallemont,  was  writing  two  hun- 
dred years  before : 

"But,  with  the  divining  rod,  it  is  possible  to  dis- 
tinguish what  metal  is  contained  in  the  mine  towards 
which  the  rod  inclines.  For  if  a  gold  coin  be 
placed  in  each  hand,  the  rod  will  only  turn  in  the  di- 
rection of  gold,  because  it  becomes  impregnated 
with  the  corpuscles  or  minute  particles  of  gold.  If 
silver  be  treated  in  the  same  way,  the  rod  will  only 
dip  towards  silver.  This,  at  any  rate,  is  what  we 
are  told  by  those  who  pride  themselves  on  their  suc- 
cessful use  of  the  rod." 

John  Stears,  the  expert  diviner,  who  was  recently 
employed  at  Tobermory  Bay,  is  more  frequently  re- 

5  See  chapter  9,  p.  218. 


372         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

tained  to  search  for  water  than  for  lost  treasure. 
This  is  his  vocation  and  he  takes  it  seriously  enough, 
as  his  own  words  indicate : 6 

1 '  The  power  is  not  in  the  rod,  but  in  the  user,  the 
rod  acting  as  an  indicator,  and  rising  when  over  a 
stream.  By  moving  the  arms  as  I  proceed,  I  can 
keep  on  the  edge  of  an  underground  stream,  for  the 
apex  descends  when  the  rod  is  not  over  the  stream. 
I  have  several  times  followed  a  line  of  water  down 
to  the  shore,  being  rowed  out  in  the  bay,  and  found 
the  water  boiling  up  mixed  with  land  weeds.  At 
such  a  spot  there  is  no  movement  of  the  rod  except 
over  the  course  of  the  stream.  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  describe  the  sensation  caused  whilst  using 
the  rod ;  it  is  sometimes  like  a  current  of  electricity 
going  through  the  arms  and  legs.  On  raising  one 
foot  from  the  ground  the  rod  descends.  The  effect 
produced  when  walking  is  that  the  rod  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  fishing  rod  when  the  fish  is  hooked, — i 
the  rod  seems  alive.  Move  it  clear  of  the  line  of 
water  and  down  it  goes. 

"Very  few  people  have  the  gift  of  finding  water 
or  minerals,  and  not  many  rods  will  do,  but  those 
that  have  thorns  on  them  are  all  right.  In  the  trop- 
ics I  used  acacia,  and  in  southern  Europe  the  holly 
or  orange.  The  use  of  the  rod  is  exhausting.  If 
I  have  been  at  it  a  few  hours,  the  power  gradually 
gets  less.  A  rest  and  some  sandwiches  produce 
fresh  power,  and  I  can  start  again. 

1 ' 1  think  the  friction  of  the  water  against  the  rock 
underground  must  cause  some  electric  current,  for 
if  the  person  using  the  rod  stands  on  a  piece  of  glass, 
india-rubber,  or  other  insulating  material,  all  power 
leaves  him. 

6  Quoted  from  the  volume,  Water  Divining   (London,  1902). 


WIZARD  Y  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  373 

"In  Cashmere,  the  rod  is  used  before  a  well  is 
sunk,  and  when  the  French  army  went  to  Tonkin, 
they  used  the  rod  for  finding  drinking  water  at  their 
camps,  as  they  feared  the  wells  were  poisoned. 

If  the  divining  rod  is  able  to  fathom  the  secrets  of 
underground  water  channels,  it  must  be  as  potent  in 
the  case  of  buried  treasure.  Several  years  ago,  the 
claims  of  the  modern  "dowsers"  were  investigated 
by  no  less  an  authority  than  Professor  W.  F.  Bar- 
rett, holding  the  chair  of  Experimental  Physics  in 
the  Royal  College  of  Science  for  Ireland.  The  re- 
sults were  presented  to  the  Society  of  Psychical  Ee- 
search  and  published  in  two  volumes  of  its  proceed- 
ings.   He  said  in  his  introductory  pages : 

"At  first  sight,  few  subjects  appear  to  be  so  un- 
worthy of  serious  notice  and  so  utterly  beneath 
scientific  investigation  as  that  of  the  divining  rod. 
To  most  men  of  science,  the  reported  achievements  of 
the  diviner  are  on  a  par  with  the  rogueries  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  'Dousterswivel.'  That  anyone  with 
the  smallest  scientific  training  should  think  it  worth 
his  while  to  devote  a  considerable  amount  of  time 
and  labor  to  an  enquiry  into  the  alleged  evidence  on 
behalf  of  the  'rod'  will  appear  to  my  scientific 
friends  about  as  sensible  as  if  he  spent  his  time  in- 
vestigating fortune-telling  or  any  other  relic  of 
superstitious  folly.  Nor  was  my  own  prejudice 
against  the  subject  any  less  than  that  of  others. 
For  I  confess  that  it  was  with  great  reluctance,  and 
even  repugnance,  that  some  six  years  ago,  yielding 
to  the  earnest  request  of  the  Council  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  I  began  an  investigation  of 
the  matter,  hoping,  however,  in  my  ignorance,  that  a 
few  weeks  work  would  enable  me  to  relegate  it  'to  a 
limbo,  large  and  broad,  since  called  the  Paradise  of 


374         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Fools.*  "  In  the  summing-up  of  his  exhaustive  in- 
vestigations, Professor  Barrett  committed  himself 
to  these  conclusions : 

"1.  That  the  twisting  of  the  forked  twig,  or  so- 
called  divining  rod,  is  due  to  involuntary  muscular 
action  on  the  part  of  the  dowser. 

"2.  That  this  is  the  result  of  an  ideo-motor  ac- 
tion; any  idea  or  suggestion,  whether  conscious,  or 
sub-conscious,  that  is  associated  in  the  dowser's 
mind  with  the  twisting  of  the  twig,  will  cause  it  to 
turn  apparently  spontaneously  in  his  hands. 

"3.  Hence  the  divining  rod  has  been  used  in  the 
search  for  all  sorts  of  things,  from  criminals  to 
water,  its  action  being  precisely  similar  to  the  'pen- 
dicle explorateur,'  i.  e.}  a  small  suspended  ball  or 
ring  depending  by  a  thread  from  the  hand. 

"4.  Dismissing,  therefore,  the  mere  twisting  of 
the  forked  rod,  the  question  at  issue  is,  how  is  the 
suggestion  derived  by  the  dowser  that  starts  this  in- 
voluntary muscular  action?  Here  the  answer  is  a 
very  complex  and  difficult  one. 

"5.  Careful  and  critical  examination  shows  that 
certain  dowsers  (not  all  in  whose  hands  the  twig 
turns)  have  a  genuine  facility  or  faculty  for  finding 
underground  water  beyond  that  possessed  by  ordi- 
nary well-sinkers. 

"Part  of  this  success  is  due  (1st)  to  shrewd  ob- 
servation and  the  conscious  and  unconscious  detec- 
tion of  the  surface  signs  of  underground  water. 
(2nd)  A  residue,  say  ten  per  cent  or  fifteen  per 
cent  of  their  successes  cannot  be  so  explained,  nor 
can  these  be  accounted  for  by  chance  nor  lucky  hits, 
the  proportion  being  larger  than  the  doctrine  of 
probabilities  would  account  for. 

"This  residue  no  known  scientific  explanation  can 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  375 

account  for.  Personally,  I  believe  the  explanation 
will  be  found  in  some  faculty  akin  to  clairvoyance; 
but  as  the  science  of  to-day  does  not  recognize  such  a 
faculty,  I  prefer  to  leave  the  explanation  to  future 
inquirers,  and  to  throw  on  the  skeptic  the  task  of 
disproving  my  assertions,  and  giving  his  own  ex- 
planations.' ' 

This  unexplained  residue,  "akin  to  clairvoy- 
ance, "  as  admitted  by  a  scientist  of  to-day  who 
wears  a  top-hat  and  rides  in  taxi-cabs,  clothes  the 
divining  rod  in  the  same  alluring  mystery  which  so 
puzzled  those  childlike  and  credulous  observers  of 
remote  and  misty  centuries.  The  Abbe  de  Valle- 
mont,  writing  in  1697,  found  the  problem  hardly 
more  difficult  to  explain  than  does  this  Professor  of 
Experimental  Physics  in  the  Eoyal  College  of  Sci- 
ence. The  wise  men  of  the  seventeenth  century 
strove  hard  to  comprehend  the  "  unexplained  resi- 
due," each  after  his  own  fashion. 

Michael  Mayerus,  in  his  book  entitled  Verum  In- 
ventum,  hoc  est,  Munera  Germance,  claimed  that  the 
world  was  indebted  to  Germany  for  the  invention 
of  gunpowder,  and  stated  that  the  first  wood-char- 
coal used  in  its  manufacture,  mixed  with  sulphur 
and  saltpeter,  was  made  from  the  hazel  tree.  This 
lead  him  to  refer  to  the  sympathy  existing  between 
hazel  wood  and  metals,  and  to  add  that  for  this  rea- 
son the  divining  rod  was  made  of  this  particular 
wood,  which  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  discov- 
ery of  hidden  gold  and  silver. 

Philip  Melanchthon,  1497-1560,  famously  learned 
in  Natural  Philosophy  and  Theology,  discoursed  on 
Sympathy,  of  which  he  recognized  six  degrees  in 
Nature,  and  in  the  second  of  these  he  named  that 
sympathy  or  affinity  which  is  found  to  exist  between 


376         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

plants  and  minerals.  He  used  as  an  illustration  the 
forked  hazel  twig  employed  by  those  who  search 
after  gold,  silver,  and  other  precious  metals.  He 
attributed  the  movement  of  the  rod  to  the  metallic 
juices  which  nourish  the  hazel  tree  in  the  soil,  and 
he  was  therefore  convinced  that  its  peculiar  mani- 
festations were  wholly  sympathetic  and  according  to 
natural  law. 

Neuheusius  spoke  of  the  divining  rod  as  a  marvel 
from  the  bounteous  hands  of  Nature,  and  exhorted 
men  to  use  it  in  the  search  for  mineral  wealth  and  con- 
cealed treasure.  Enchanted  with  this  insignificant- 
looking  instrument,  he  exclaimed:  "What  shall  I  say 
now  concerning  the  Divine  Eod,  which  is  but  a  sim- 
ple hazel  twig,  and  yet  possesses  the  power  of  divina- 
tion in  the  discovery  of  metals,  be  that  power  de- 
rived from  mutual  sympathy,  from  some  secret 
astral  influence,  or  from  some  still  more  powerful 
source.  Let  us  take  courage  and  use  this  salutary 
rod,  so  that,  after  having  withdrawn  the  metals  from 
the  abode  of  the  dead,  we  may  seek  in  the  metals 
themselves  some  such  faculty  for  divination  as  we 
find  in  the  hazel." 

Eudolph  Glauber,  who  made  many  experiments 
with  the  rod,  had  this  to  say  of  it :  ■ '  Metallic  veins 
can  also  be  discovered  by  means  of  the  hazel  rod. 
It  is  used  for  that  purpose,  and  I  speak  after  long 
experience.  Melt  the  metals  under  a  certain  con- 
stellation, and  make  a  ball  of  them  pierced  through 
the  middle ;  thrust  into  the  hole  thus  formed  a  young 
sprig  of  hazel,  of  the  same  year,  with  no  branches. 
Carry  this  rod  straight  in  front  of  you  over  the 
places  where  metals  are  believed  to  be,  and  when 
the  rod  dips  and  the  ball  inclines  towards  the  soil, 
you  may  rest  assured  that  metal  lies  beneath.    And 


WIZARDY  OP  THE  DIVINING  ROD  377 

as  this  method  is  based  on  natural  law,  it  should  un- 
doubtedly be  used  in  preference  to  any  other." 

Egidius  Gustman,  supposedly  a  Eosicrucian 
friar,  and  author  of  a  work  entitled  La  Revelation 
de  la  Divine  Majeste,  devoted  a  chapter  to  the  study 
of  the  question  "whether  hazel  rods  may  be  used 
without  sin  in  the  search  for  metals."  He  reached 
the  conclusion  that  there  could  be  nothing  unchristian 
in  their  employment  for  the  discovery  of  gold  and 
silver,  provided  neither  words,  ceremonies,  nor  en- 
chantments be  called  into  requisition,  and  that  it  be 
done  "in  the  fear  and  under  the  eyes  of  God." 

M.  de  Vallemont  quotes  as  his  final  authority  the 
Abbe  Gallet,  Grand  Penitentiary  of  the  Church  of 
Carpentras.  He  considers  that  the  Abbe's  high  po- 
sition in  the  church,  and  his  deep  knowledge  of  phys- 
ics and  mathematics,  should  lend  great  weight  to 
his  opinion  concerning  the  divining  rod.  He  there- 
fore requests  a  mutual  friend  to  put  to  the  Abbe  this 
question,  "Is  not  the  inclination  of  the  rod  due  to 
sleight  of  hand  or  something  in  which  the  Devil 
may  play  a  part?"  The  Abbe  returns  a  long  reply 
in  Latin,  which  de  Vallemont  is  pleased  to  translate 
and  print  in  his  book.    It  opens  thus : 

"Monsieur  l'Abbe  Gallet  declares  in  his  own  hand 
that  the  rod  turns  in  the  direction  of  water  and  of 
metals;  that  he  has  used  it  several  times  with  ad- 
mirable success  in  order  to  find  water-courses  and 
hidden  treasure,  and  that  he  is  far  from  agreeing 
with  those  who  maintain  that  there  is  in  it  any 
trickery  or  diabolical  influence." 

William  Cookworthy,  who  flourished  in  England 
about  1750,  was  a  famous  exponent  of  the  divining 
rod,  and  he  laid  down  a  most  elaborate  schedule  of 
directions  for  its  use  in  finding  hidden  treasure  or 


378         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

veins  of  gold  or  silver.  In  conclusion,  he  sagely 
observed : 7 

1  'I  would  remark  that  'tis  plain  a  person  may  be 
very  easily  deceived  in  making  experiments  with 
this  instrument,  there  being,  in  metallic  countries, 
vast  quantities  of  attracting  stones  scattered 
through  the  earth.  The  attractions  of  springs  con- 
tinually occurring;  and  even  about  town,  bits  of 
iron,  pins,  etc.  may  easily  be  the  means  of  deceiv- 
ing the  unwary.  For  as  quantity  makes  no  alter- 
ation in  the  strength,  but  only  in  the  wideness  of 
the  attraction,  a  pin  under  one  foot  would  stop  the  at- 
traction of  any  quantity  of  every  other  sort,  but  gold, 
which  might  be  under  the  other.  .  .  .  Whoever, 
therefore,  will  make  experiments  need  be  very  cau- 
tious in  exploring  the  ground,  and  be  sure  not  to  be 
too  anxious,  for  which  reason  I  would  advise  him, 
in  case  of  debates,  not  to  be  too  warm  and  lay  wa- 
gers on  the  success,  but,  unruffled,  leave  the  unbe- 
lievers to  their  infidelity,  and  permit  time  and  Prov- 
idence to  convince  people  of  the  reality  of  the 
thing." 

If  one  would  know  how  to  fashion  the  divining 
rod  to  give  most  surely  the  magic  results,  he  has 
only  to  consult  "The  Shepherd's  Calendar  and 
Countryman 's  Companion ' '  in  which  it  is  affirmed : 

"Cut  a  hazel  wand  forked  at  the  upper  end  like 
a  Y.  Peel  off  the  rind  and  dry  it  in  a  moderate 
heat;  then  steep  it  in  the  juice  of  wake-robin  or 
night-shade,  and  cut  the  single  lower  end  sharp,  and 
where  you  suppose  any  rich  mine  or  treasure  is 
near,  place  a  piece  of  the  same  metal  you  conceive 
is  hid  in  the  earth  to  the  tip  of  one  of  the  forks  by 
a  hair  or  very  fine  silk  or  thread,  and  do  the  like 

7  The   Gentleman's    Magazine    (London,    1752). 


WIZARD  Y  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  379 

to  the  other  end.  Pitch  the  sharp  single  end  lightly 
to  the  ground  at  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  the 
moon  being  at  the  increase,  and  in  the  morning  at 
sunrise,  by  a  natural  sympathy,  you  will  find  the 
metal  inclining,  as  it  were,  pointing  to  the  place 
where  the  other  is  hid." 

According  to  the  author  of  the  modern  book,  "The 
Divining  Rod  and  its  Uses,"8  "it  is  curious  to  note 
that  about  one  hundred  years  ago  there  was  con- 
siderable excitement  in  the  north  of  England  owing 
to  the  remarkable  powers  possessed  by  a  lady  of 
quality  in  the  district,  this  being  no  other  than  Ju- 
dith Noel,  afterwards  Lady  Milbank,  the  mother 
of  Lady  Byron.  Miss  Noel  discovered  her  marvel- 
ous faculty  when  a  mere  girl,  yet  so  afraid  was  she 
of  being  ridiculed  that  she  would  not  publicly  de- 
clare it,  thinking  she  might  be  called  a  witch,  or 
that  she  would  not  get  a  husband.  Lady  Milbank 
afterwards  overcame  her  prejudice  and  used  the  rod 
on  many  occasions  with  considerable  success." 

About  1880,  a  certain  Madame  Caillavah  of  Paris 
was  at  the  height  of  her  fame  as  a  high-priestess  of 
the  divining  rod,  and  her  pretensions  with  respect 
to  finding  buried  treasure  quite  set  France  by  the 
ears.  She  was  besought  to  discover,  among  other 
hoards,  the  twelve  golden  effigies  taken  from  the 
Saint  Chapelle  during  the  Revolution  and  hidden 
underground  for  safe-keeping ;  the  treasure  of  King 
Stanislaus,  buried  outside  the  gates  of  Nancy;  and 
the  vast  accumulations  of  the  Petits  Peres,  or  Beg- 
ging Friars.  The  French  Government  took  Madame 
seriously  and  permitted  her  to  operate  by  means  of 
an  agreement  which  should  insure  a  proper  division 
of  the  spoils.    There  could  be  no  better  authority 

8  By  Young  and  Robertson  (London,  1894). 


380         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

for  the  singular  exploits  of  Madame  Caillavah  than 
the  columns  of  The  London  Times  which  stated  in 
the  issue  of  October  6th,  1882: 

"A  certain  Madame  Caillavah,  who  in  spite  of  a 
long  experience  does  not  yet  bring  the  credentials 
of  success,  is  said  to  be  exploring  the  pavement  of 
St.  Denis 9  in  search  of  buried  treasures.  The 
French  Government  likes  partnerships,  conventions, 
and  co-dominions,  and  it  insists  on  what  almost 
amounts  to  the  lion's  share  of  the  spoil.  Neverthe- 
less, a  good  many  people  have  been  found  to  invest 
largely  in  the  enterprise,  which  will  cost  something 
if  it  comes  to  actual  digging.  The  investigation 
itself  is  not  in  the  nature  of  an  excavation,  nor  is  it 
with  the  spade  or  the  pickax,  unless,  indeed,  it  should 
turn  out  that  it  is  a  veritable  gold  mine  under  St. 
Denis,  when  the  royal  monuments  may  be  thankful 
if  even  dynamite  be  not  freely  resorted  to. 

*  *  The  divining  rod  is  to  lead  the  way.  ...  At 
the  beginning  of  this  century  France  was  one  vast 
field  of  buried  treasure.  The  silver  coin  was  so 
bulky  that  £200  of  our  money  would  be  a  hundred- 
weight to  carry,  and  £1,000  would  be  a  cartload.  So 
it  was  buried  in  the  hope  of  a  speedy  return.  The 
fugitive  owners  perished  or  died  in  exile.  Their 
successors  on  the  spot  came  upon  one  hoard  after 
another,  and  said  nothing  about  it.  That  they  did 
find  the  money  and  put  it  in  circulation,  there  could 
be  no  doubt,  for  it  was  impossible  to  take  a  handful 
of  silver  forty  years  ago  without  one  or  two  pieces 
showing  a  green  rust  in  place  of  a  white  luster. 
This  was  the  result  of  long  interment,  and  calcula- 
tions were  made  as  to  the  likely  total  of  the  ex- 
humation. 

9  For  centuries  the  home  of  the  Benedictine  Order. 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  381 

"But  one  then  heard  nothing  of  the  divining  rod, 
not  at  least  in  cities,  in  cathedrals,  among  the  sepul- 
chers  of  kings,  and  in  the  department  of  State.  Our 
first  wish  is  that  the  experiment  may  be  quite  suc- 
cessful. It  would  be  so  very  surprising;  quite  a 
new  sensation,  much  wanted  in  these  days.  But 
there  would  be  something  more  than  a  passing  sen- 
sation. Even  a  moderate  success  would  discover  to 
us  a  means  of  support  and  a  mode  of  existence  far 
easier  and  pleasanter  than  any  yet  known.  We 
should  only  have  to  walk  about,  very  slowly  with 
the  orthodox  rod,  properly  held  and  handled,  keep- 
ing our  attention  duly  fixed  on  the  desirableness  of 
a  little  more  money,  and  we  should  find  it  springing 
up,  as  it  were,  from  the  ground  before  us.    .    .    . 

"The  French  Minister  of  Fine  Arts  need  not  be 
deterred, — nay,  it  is  plain  he  is  not  deterred, — by 
the  scruples  that  interrupted  the  investigations  of 
the  great  Linne  and  stopped  him  on  the  very  thresh- 
old of  verification.  On  one  of  his  travels  his  secre- 
tary brought  him  a  divining  wand,  with  an  account 
of  its  powers.  Linne  hid  a  purse  containing  one 
hundred  ducats  under  a  ranunculus  10  in  the  garden. 
He  then  took  a  number  of  witnesses  who  experi- 
mented with  the  wand  all  over  the  ground,  but  with- 
out success.  Indeed,  they  trod  the  ground  so  com- 
pletely that  Linne  could  not  find  where  he  had  buried 
the  purse. 

"They  then  brought  in  the  'man  with  the  wand' 
and  he  immediately  pointed  out  the  right  direction, 
and  then  the  very  spot  where  the  money  lay. 
Linne 's  remark  was  that  another  experiment  would 
convert  him  to  the  wand.  But  he  resolved  not  to 
be  converted,  and  therefore  did  not  repeat  the  ex- 

10  In  plain  English,  flowers  of  the  buttercup  family. 


382         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

periment.  Possibly  feeling  that  it  was  neither 
science  nor  religion,  he  would  have  nothing,  to  do 
with  any  other  conceivable  alternative." 

In  The  London  Times  of  November  3rd,  1882, 
there  was  published  under  the  head  of  ''Foreign 
Intelligence,"  the  following  dispatch  which  may  be 
regarded  as  a  tragic  sequel  of  the  foregoing  para- 
graphs : 

"The  titular  Archbishop  of  Lepanto,  who  is  the 
head  of  the  Chapter  of  St.  Denis,  has  addressed  a 
remonstrance  to  the  Government  against  the  re- 
newed divining  rod  experiments  on  which  Madame 
Caillavah  is  insisting  under  her  compact  with  the 
State  for  a  division  of  the  spoils.  He  dwells  on  the 
absurdity  of  the  theory  that  on  the  Eevolutionary 
seizure  of  1793  the  Benedictines  could  have  con- 
cealed a  portion  of  their  treasures,  of  which  printed 
lists  existed  and  the  most  valuable  of  which  were 
notoriously  confiscated. 

"As  to  the  notion  of  an  earlier  secretion  of  treas- 
ures, the  memory  of  which  had  perished,  he  urges 
that  St.  Denis  having  belonged  to  the  Benedictines 
from  its  very  erection,  no  motive  for  secretion  ex- 
isted and  had  there  been  any,  the  tradition  or  record 
of  it  would  have  been  preserved,  while  at  least  four 
successive  reconstructions  would  certainly  have 
brought  any  such  treasure  to  light.  The  mob  of 
1793,  moreover,  actually  ransacked  the  vaults,  after 
the  removal  of  the  bodies,  for  the  very  purpose  of 
discovering  such  secret  hoards.  St.  Denis,  in 
short,  is  the  very  last  place  in  the  world  for  treas- 
ure-trove, and  as  for  the  central  crypt,  which  the 
sorceress  claims  to  break  into,  it  was  rifled  in  1793 
when  it  contained  fifty-three  bodies  which  left  no 
vacant  space. 


WIZARDY  OF  THE  DIVINING  ROD  383 

"The  Archbishop  need  scarcely  have  troubled 
himself  with  this  demonstration.  Public  ridicule 
has  made  an  end  of  the  project,  and  even  if  Madame 
Caillavah  carried  out  her  threat  of  a  lawsuit,  no 
tribunal  would  hold  her  entitled  to  carry  on  exca- 
vations ad  libitum,  with  a  risk,  perhaps,  of  herself 
and  her  workmen  being  buried  under  the  ruins  of 
the  finest  of  French  cathedrals.  In  debating  the 
Fine  Arts  Department  estimates,  M.  Delattre,  Dep- 
uty for  St.  Denis,  animadverted  on  the  divining  rod 
experiments  in  the  cathedral.  M.  Tirard  replied 
that  the  Government  had  had  no  share  in  this  ridic- 
ulous business.  The  treaty  with  the  sorceress  was 
concluded  in  January,  1881,  by  an  official  who  had 
since  been  superannuated,  but  was  not  acted  upon 
till  she  could  deposit  two  hundred  francs  guarantee, 
and  as  soon  as  he  himself  heard  of  the  experiments 
he  put  a  peremptory  stop  to  them. 

"It  is  important  here  to  observe  that  it  after- 
wards transpired  that  the  object  of  Madame  Cail- 
lavah's  lawsuit  was  not  so  much  to  obtain  damages 
for  any  breach  of  contract  as  to  vindicate  her  pri- 
vate and  public  character  and  her  professional  rep- 
utation as  a  so-called  'diviner'  from  the  odium, 
scorn,  and  defamation  which  the  repudiation  of  the 
treaty  so  universally  entailed.  The  sad  result  of 
all  this  was  that  the  unfortunate  and  sensitive  lady 
was  not  able  to  withstand  the  opprobrium  that  was 
heaped  upon  her,  nor  'the  ridicule  that  made  an  end 
of  her  project.'  This  maligned  and  misunderstood 
lady  (who,  as  expressly  stated,  'had  no  doubt 
brought  a  good  pedigree  with  her')  after  a  few 
months  of  sorrow,  and  conscious  of  her  rectitude, 
at  length  succumbed  and,  as  reported,  ultimately 
died  of  a  'broken  heart,'  " 


CHAPTER    XV 

SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY 

"Seven  years  were  gone  and  over,  Wild  Roger  came  again, 
He  spoke  of  forays  and  of  frays  upon  the  Spanish  Main, 
And  he  had  stores  of  gold  galore,  and  silks  and  satins  fine, 
And  flasks  and  casks  of  Malvoisie,  and  precious  Gascon 

wine; 
Eich  booties  had  he  brought,  he  said,  across  the  Western 

wave. 
But  Roger  was  the  same  man  still, — he  scorned  his  broth- 
er's prayers — 
He  called  his  crew,  away  he  flew,  and  on  those  foreign 

shores, 
Got  killed  in  some  outlandish  place, — they  called  it  the 
Eyesores." 

(Ingoldsby  Legends.) 

The  popular  delusion  that  pirates  found  nothing 
better  to  do  with  their  plunder  than  to  bury  it,  like 
so  many  thrifty  depositors  in  savings  banks,  clashes 
with  what  is  known  of  the  habits  and  temperaments 
of  many  of  the  most  industrious  rovers  under  the 
black  flag.  By  way  of  a  concluding  survey  of  the 
matter,  let  us  briefly  examine  the  careers  of  divers 
pirates  of  sorts  and  try  to  ascertain  what  they  did 
with  their  gold  and  whether  it  be  plausible  to  as- 
sume that  they  had  any  of  it  left  to  bury.  Of  course, 
romance  and  legend  are  up  in  arms  at  the  presump- 
tion that  any  well-regulated  and  orthodox  pirate 
omitted  the  business  with  the  pick  and  shovel  and 
the  chart  with  the  significant  crosses  and  compass 

384 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      385 

bearings,  but  the  prosaic  facts  of  history  are  due  to 
have  their  innings. 

For  example,  there  was  Jean  Lafitte  who  amassed 
great  riches  in  the  pursuit  of  his  profession  and 
whose  memory  has  inspired  innumerable  treasure- 
seeking  expeditions  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  along 
the  coast  of  Central  America.  After  ravaging  the 
commerce  of  the  East  India  Company  in  the  waters 
of  the  Far  East,  he  set  up  his  headquarters  on  an 
island  among  the  bayous  and  cypress  swamps  of 
that  desolate  region  below  New  Orleans  that  is 
known  as  Barrataria.  A  deep-water  pass  ran  to 
the  open  sea,  only  two  leagues  distant,  and  on  the 
shores  of  the  sheltered  harbor  of  Grand  Terre, 
Lafitte  organized  the  activities  of  a  large  number 
of  pirates  and  smugglers  and  formed  a  flourishing 
colony ;  a  corporation,  in  its  way,  for  disposing  of  the 
merchandise  filched  from  honest  shipping.  These 
marauders  posed  as  privateers,  and  some  of  them 
had  French  and  other  commissions  for  sailing 
against  the  Spanish,  but  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
laxity  in  such  trifles  as  living  up  to  the  letter  of  the 
law. 

At  Grand  Terre,  Lafitte  and  his  people  sold  the 
cargoes  of  their  prizes  by  public  auction,  and  from 
all  parts  of  lower  Louisiana  bargain-hunters  flocked 
to  Barrataria  to  deal  in  this  tempting  traffic.  The 
goods  thus  purchased  were  smuggled  into  New  Or- 
leans and  other  nearby  ports,  and  Lafitte 's  pi- 
ratical enterprises  became  so  notorious  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  sent  an  expedition 
against  him  in  1814,  commanded  by  Commodore 
Patterson.  At  Grand  Terre  he  found  a  settlement 
so  great  in  force  and  numbers  as  to  constitute  a 
small  kingdom  ruled  by  Lafitte.    The  commodore  de- 


386         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

scribed  the  encounter  in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of 
War,  and  said  in  part : 

"At  half -past  eight  o'clock  a.m.  on  the  16th  of 
June,  made  the  Island  of  Barrataria,  and  discovered 
a  number  of  vessels  in  the  harbor  some  of  which 
showed  the  colors  of  Carthagena.  At  two  o'clock, 
perceived  the  pirates  forming  their  vessels,  ten  in 
number,  including  prizes,  into  a  line  of  battle  near 
the  entrance  of  the  harbor,  and  making  every  prep- 
aration to  offer  battle.  At  ten  o'clock,  wind  light 
and  variable,  formed  the  order  of  battle  with  six 
gun  boats  and  the  Sea  Horse  tender,  mounting  one 
six  pounder  and  fifteen  men,  and  a  launch  mounting 
one  twelve  pound  carronade;  the  schooner  Carolina 
drawing  too  much  water  to  cross  the  bar. 

"At  half -past  ten  o'clock,  perceived  several 
smokes  along  the  coasts  as  signals,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  white  flag  hoisted  on  board  a  schooner  at  the 
fort,  an  American  flag  at  the  mainmast  head,  and  a 
Carthagenian  flag  (under  which  the  pirates  cruise) 
at  her  topping-lift.  I  replied  with  a  white  flag  at 
my  main.  At  eleven  o'clock  discovered  that  the  pi- 
rates had  fired  two  of  their  best  schooners;  hauled 
down  my  white  flag  and  made  the  signal  for  battle ; 
hoisting  a  large  flag  bearing  the  words  Pardon  for 
Deserters,  having  heard  there  was  a  number  on 
shore  from  our  army  and  navy.  At  a  quarter  past 
eleven  o'clock,  two  gun-boats  grounded,  and  were 
passed,  agreeably  to  my  previous  orders,  by  the 
other  four  which  entered  the  harbor,  manned  by 
my  barge  and  the  boats  belonging  to  the  grounded 
vessels,  and  proceeded  in.  To  my  great  disap- 
pointment, I  perceived  that  the  pirates  had  aban- 
doned their  vessels  and  were  flying  in  all  directions. 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      387 

I  immediately  sent  the  launch  and  two  barges  with 
small  boats  in  pursuit  of  them. 

"At  meridian,  took  possession  of  all  their  vessels 
in  the  harbor,  consisting  of  six  schooners  and  one 
felucca,  cruisers  and  prizes  of  the  pirates,  one  brig, 
a  prize,  and  two  armed  schooners  under  the  Car- 
thagenian  flag,  both  in  the  line  of  battle  with  the 
armed  vessels  of  the  pirates,  and  apparently  with 
an  intention  to  aid  them  in  any  resistance  they 
might  make  against  me,  as  their  crews  were  at 
quarters,  tompions  out  of  their  guns,  and  matches 
lighted.  Colonel  Eoss  (with  seventy-five  infantry) 
at  the  same  time  landed  and  took  possession  of  their 
establishment  on  shore,  consisting  of  about  forty 
houses  of  different  sizes,  badly  constructed  and 
thatched  with  palmetto  leaves. 

"When  I  perceived  the  enemy  forming  their  ves- 
sels into  a  line  of  battle,  I  felt  confident  from  their 
number,  and  very  advantageous  position,  and  their 
number  of  men,  that  they  would  have  fought  me. 
Their  not  doing  so  I  regret,  for  had  they,  I  should 
have  been  able  more  effectually  to  destroy  or  make 
prisoners  of  them  and  their  leaders.  The  enemy 
had  mounted  on  their  vessels  twenty  pieces  of  cannon 
of  different  caliber,  and  as  I  have  since  learned,  had 
from  eight  hundred  to  one  thousand  men  of  all  na- 
tions and  colors." 

Notwithstanding  this  unfriendly  visit,  Lafitte  was 
a  patriot  after  his  own  fashion  and  during  the  War 
of  1812  his  sympathies  were  with  the  American 
forces.  In  September,  1814,  Captain  Lockyer,  of 
a  British  naval  vessel,  anchored  in  the  pass  at  Bar- 
rataria,  and  delivered  to  Lafitte  a  packet  of  docu- 
ments comprising  a  proclamation  addressed  to  the 


388         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

inhabitants  of  Louisiana  by  Colonel  Edward  Nich- 
alls,  commander  of  the  English  forces  on  the  coast 
of  Florida,  a  letter  from  him  to  Lafitte,  and  another 
from  the  Honorable  W.  H.  Percy,  captain  of  the 
sloop-of-war  Hermes.  The  npshot  of  all  this  was 
a  proposal  that  Lafitte  enter  the  British  naval  serv- 
ice in  command  of  a  frigate,  and  if  he  would  take  his 
men  with  him  he  should  have  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars, payable  at  Pensacola. 

Lafitte  refused  the  tempting  bait,  and  two  days 
later  sent  the  following  letter  to  Governor  Clai- 
borne of  the  state  of  Louisiana: 

Barrataria,  Sept.  4th.  1814. 
"Sir: 

"In  the  firm  persuasion  that  the  choice  made  of 
you  to  fill  the  office  of  first  magistrate  of  this  state,  was 
dictated  by  the  esteem  of  your  fellow  citizens,  and  was  con- 
ferred on  merit,  I  confidently  address  you  on  an  affair 
on  which  may  depend  the  safety  of  this  country.  I  offer 
to  restore  to  this  state  several  citizens  who  perhaps  in 
your  eyes  have  lost  that  sacred  title.  I  offer  you  them, 
however,  such  as  you  could  wish  to  find  them,  ready  to 
exert  their  utmost  efforts  in  defense  of  the  country.  This 
point  of  Louisiana  which  I  occupy  is  of  great  importance 
in  the  present  crisis.  I  tender  my  services  to  defend  it; 
and  the  only  reward  I  ask  is  that  a  stop  be  put  to  the 
proscription  against  me  and  my  adherents,  by  an  act  of 
oblivion,  for  all  that  has  been  done  hitherto.  I  am  the 
stray  sheep  wishing  to  return  to  the  fold.  If  you  are 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  my  offenses,  I 
shall  appear  to  you  much  less  guilty,  and  still  worthy  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  a  good  citizen.  I  have  never  sailed 
under  any  flag  but  that  of  the  republic  of  Carthagena,  and 
my  vessels  are  perfectly  regular  in  that  respect.  If  I 
could  have  brought  my  lawful  prizes  into  the  ports  of 
this  state,  I  should  not  have  employed  the  illicit  means 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      389 

that  have  caused  me  to  be  proscribed.  I  decline  saying 
more  on  the  subject,  until  I  have  the  honor  of  your  Ex- 
cellency's answer,  which  I  am  persuaded  can  be  dictated 
only  by  wisdom.  Should  your  answer  not  be  favorable  to 
my  desires,  I  declare  to  you  that  I  will  instantly  leave  the 
country,  to  avoid  the  imputation  of  having  cooperated  to- 
wards an  invasion  of  this  point,  which  cannot  fail  to  take 
place,  and  to  rest  secure  in  the  acquittal  of  my  conscience. 
"I  have  the  honor  to  be 

"Your  Excellency's,  etc. 

"J.  LaFitte." 

This  highly  commendable  document  so  favorably 
impressed  Governor  Claiborne  that  he  offered  La- 
fitte  safe  conduct  to  come  to  New  Orleans  and  meet 
General  Andrew  Jackson.  After  a  conference  of 
this  trio,  the  following  order  was  issued : 

1 '  The  Governor  of  Louisiana,  being  informed  that 
many  individuals  implicated  in  the  offenses  hereto- 
fore committed  against  the  United  States  at  Barra- 
taria,  express  a  willingness  at  the  present  crisis  to 
enroll  themselves  and  march  against  the  enemy : 

"He  does  hereby  invite  them  to  join  the  stand- 
ard of  the  United  States  and  is  authorized  to  say, 
should  their  conduct  in  the  field  meet  the  approba- 
tion of  the  Major  General,  that  that  officer  will  unite 
with  the  Governor  in  a  request  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  to  extend  to  each,  and  every  indi- 
vidual so  marching  and  acting,  a  free  and  full  par- 
don." 

At  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  on  January  8th, 
1815,  Lafitte  and  his  lieutenant,  Dominique,  com- 
manded a  large  force  of  what  Jackson  called  the 
"Corsairs  of  Barrataria, ' '  and  defended  their 
breastworks  and  served  their  batteries  with  such 
desperate  gallantry  that  they  nobly  earned  the  prom- 


390         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

ised  pardons.  These  were  granted  by  President 
James  Madison  on  February  6th,  and  he  took  occa- 
sion to  say : 

"But  it  has  since  been  represented  that  the  offend- 
ers have  manifested  a  sincere  repentance ;  that  they 
have  abandoned  the  prosecution  of  the  worst  cause 
for  the  support  of  the  best,  and  particularly,  that 
they  have  exhibited  in  the  defense  of  New  Orleans, 
unequivocal  traits  of  courage  and  fidelity.  Offend- 
ers, who  have  refused  to  become  the  associates  of 
the  enemy  in  the  war,  upon  the  most  seductive  terms 
of  invitation;  and  who  have  aided  to  repel  his  hos- 
tile invasion  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States, 
can  no  longer  be  considered  as  objects  of  punish- 
ment, but  as  objects  of  a  generous  forgiveness." 

The  foregoing  evidence  is  ample  to  prove  that 
Eafitte  had  no  occasion  to  bury  any  of  his  treasure, 
but  like  Kidd  along  the  New  England  coast,  legend 
has  been  busy  with  his  name  and  is  blind  to  the  facts 
of  record.  He  later  made  a  settlement  on  the  is- 
land of  Galveston  and  his  history  becomes  obscured. 
One  version  is  that  the  love  of  the  old  trade 
was  in  his  blood,  and  he  fitted  out  a  large  privateer 
to  have  a  farewell  fling  with  fortune.  A  British 
sloop-of-war  overhauled  him  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
hailed  him  as  a  pirate,  and  opened  fire.  The  en- 
gagement was  terrifically  hot,  and  Jean  Lafitte  was 
killed  at  the  head  of  his  men  while  resisting  a 
boarding  party. 

Take  next  the  case  of  that  noted  pirate  Captain 
Avery  "whose  adventures  were  the  subject  of  gen- 
eral conversation  in  Europe."  He  captured  one  of 
the  Great  Mogul's  ships  laden  with  treasure;  it  was 
reported  that  he  had  wedded  a  daughter  of  that  mag- 
nificent ruler  and  was  about  to  found  a  new  mon- 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY     391 

archy;  that  lie  gave  commissions  in  his  own  name 
to  the  captains  of  his  ships  and  the  commanders 
of  his  forces  and  was  acknowledged  by  them  as 
their  prince.  With  sixteen  stout  fellows  of  his  own 
kidney,  he  ran  off  with  a  ship  in  which  he  had  sailed 
from  England  as  mate,  and  steered  for  Madagascar 
in  the  year  1715.  "The  Pirates'  Own  Book"  tells 
the  story  of  Captain  Avery,  his  treasure,  and  the 
melancholy  fate  of  both,  and  the  author  is,  as  a  rule, 
such  a  well-informed  historian  of  these  matters,  that 
he  should  be  allowed  to  set  it  forth  in  his  own 
words,  which  are  framed  in  a  style  admirably  be- 
fitting the  theme. 

"Near  the  river  Indus  the  man  at  the  mast-head 
espied  a  sail  upon  which  they  gave  chase;  as  they 
came  nearer  to  her  they  discovered  that  she  was  a 
tall  vessel,  and  might  turn  out  to  be  an  East  India- 
man.  She,  however,  proved  a  better  prize ;  for  when 
they  fired  at  her,  she  hoisted  Mogul  colors,  and 
seemed  to  stand  upon  her  defense.  Avery  only 
cannonaded  at  a  distance,  when  some  of  the  men 
began  to  suspect  he  was  not  the  hero  they  had 
supposed.  His  sloops,  however,  attacked,  the  one 
on  the  bow,  and  another  upon  the  quarter  of  the 
ship,  and  so  boarded  her.  She  then  struck  her  col- 
ors. She  was  one  of  the  Great  Mogul's  own  ships, 
and  there  were  in  her  several  of  the  greatest  persons 
in  his  court,  among  whom,  it  was  said,  was  one  of 
his  daughters  going  upon  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca; 
and  they  were  carrying  with  them  rich  offerings  to 
present  at  the  shrine  of  Mahomet.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  the  people  of  the  East  travel  with 
great  magnificence,  so  that  these  had  along  with 
them  all  their  slaves  and  attendants,  with  a  large 
quantity  of  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  and  immense 


392         .THE  BOOK  OF.  BURIED  TREASURE 

sums  of  money  to  defray  their  expenses  by  land. 
The  spoil,  therefore,  which  they  received  from  that 
ship  was  almost  incalculable. 

"Our  adventurers  made  the  best  of  their  way 
back  to  Madagascar,  intending  to  make  that  place 
the  deposit  of  all  their  treasure,  to  build  a  small 
fort,  and  to  keep  always  a  few  men  there  for  its  pro- 
tection. Avery,  however,  disconcerted  this  plan, 
and  rendered  it  altogether  unnecessary.  While 
steering  their  course,  he  sent  a  boat  to  each  of  the 
sloops,  requesting  that  the  chiefs  would  come  on 
board  his  ship  to  hold  a  conference.  He  suggested 
to  them  the  necessity  of  securing  the  property  which 
they  had  acquired,  and  observed  that  the  main  diffi- 
culty was  to  get  it  safe  on  shore;  adding  that  if 
either  of  the  sloops  should  be  attacked  alone,  they 
would  not  be  able  to  make  any  great  resistance. 
That,  for  his  part,  his  ship  was  so  strong,  so  well 
manned,  and  such  a  swift-sailing  vessel,  that  he  did 
not  think  it  possible  for  any  other  ship  to  take  or 
overcome  her.  Accordingly,  he  proposed  that  all 
their  treasure  should  be  sealed  up  in  three  chests, — 
that  each  of  the  captains  should  have  a  key,  and 
that  they  should  not  be  opened  until  all  were  pres- 
ent;— that  the  chests  should  be  then  put  on  board 
his  ship  and  afterwards  lodged  in  some  safe  place 
on  land. 

"This  proposal  seemed  so  reasonable,  and  so 
much  for  the  common  good  that  it  was  agreed  to 
without  hesitation,  and  all  the  treasure  was  depos- 
ited in  three  chests  and  carried  to  Avery's  ship. 
The  weather  being  favorable,  they  remained  all  three 
in  company  during  that  and  the  next  day;  mean- 
while Avery,  tampering  with  his  men,  suggested 
that  they  had  now  on  board  what  was  sufficient  to 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      393 

make  them  all  happy;  'and  what,'  continued  he, 
1  should  hinder  us  from  going  to  some  country  where 
we  are  not  known,  and  living  on  shore  all  the  rest  of 
our  days  in  plenty?'  They  soon  understood  his 
hint,  and  all  readily  consented  to  deceive  the  men 
of  the  sloops,  and  fly  with  all  the  booty.  This  they 
effected  during  the  darkness  of  the  following  night. 
The  reader  may  easily  conjecture  what  were  the 
feelings  and  indignation  of  the  other  two  crews  in 
the  morning  when  they  discovered  that  Avery  had 
made  off  with  all  their  property. 

"  Avery  and  his  men  hastened  towards  America, 
and  being  strangers  in  that  country,  agreed  to  di- 
vide the  booty,  to  change  their  names,  and  each  sep- 
arately to  take  up  his  residence  and  live  in  affluence 
and  honor.  .  .  .  Avery  had  been  careful  to  con- 
ceal the  greater  part  of  the  jewels  and  other  valua- 
ble articles,  so  that  his  own  riches  were  immense. 
Arriving  at  Boston,  he  was  almost  resolved  to  set- 
tle there,  but  as  the  greater  part  of  his  wealth  con- 
sisted of  diamonds,  he  was  apprehensive  that  he 
could  not  dispose  of  them  at  that  place,  without  be- 
ing taken  up  as  a  pirate.  Upon  reflection,  there- 
fore, he  resolved  to  sail  for  Ireland,  and  in  a  short 
time  arrived  in  the  northern  part  of  that  kingdom, 
and  his  men  dispersed  into  several  places.  Some 
of  them  obtained  the  pardon  of  King  William  and 
settled  in  that  country. 

"The  wealth  of  Avery,  however,  now  proved  of 
small  service  and  occasioned  him  great  uneasiness. 
He  could  not  offer  his  diamonds  for  sale  in  that 
country  without  being  suspected.  Considering, 
therefore,  what  was  best  to  be  done,  he  thought 
there  might  be  some  person  in  Bristol  he  could  ven- 
ture to  trust.     Upon  this  he  resolved,  and  going  to 


394         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Devonshire,  sent  to  one  of  his  friends  to  meet  him 
at  a  town  called  Bidef  ord.  When  he  had  unbosomed 
himself  to  him  and  other  pretended  friends,  they 
agreed  that  the  safest  plan  was  to  put  his  effects 
in  the  hands  of  some  wealthy  merchants,  and  no  in- 
quiry would  be  made  how  they  came  by  them. 

' '  One  of  these  friends  told  him  he  was  acquainted 
with  some  who  were  very  fit  for  the  purpose,  and  if 
he  would  allow  them  a  handsome  commission,  they 
would  do  the  business  faithfully.  Avery  liked  the 
proposal,  particularly  as  he  could  think  of  no  other 
way  of  managing  this  matter,  since  he  could  not  ap- 
pear to  act  for  himself.  Accordingly,  the  merchants 
paid  Avery  a  visit  at  Bideford,  where  after  strong 
protestations  of  honor  and  integrity,  he  delivered 
them  his  effects,  consisting  of  diamonds  and  some 
vessels  of  gold.  After  giving  him  a  little  money  for 
his  present  subsistence,  they  departed. 

"He  changed  his  name  and  lived  quietly  at  Bide- 
ford, so  that  no  notice  was  taken  of  him.  In  a  short 
time  his  money  was  all  spent,  and  he  heard  nothing 
from  his  merchants  though  he  wrote  to  them  re- 
peatedly. At  last  they  sent  him  a  small  supply,  but 
it  was  not  sufficient  to  pay  his  debts.  In  short,  the 
remittances  they  sent  him  were  so  trifling  that  he 
could  with  difficulty  exist.  He  therefore  determined 
to  go  privately  to  Bristol,  and  have  an  interview 
with  the  merchants  himself, — where  instead  of 
money,  he  met  with  a  mortifying  repulse.  For  when 
he  desired  them  to  come  to  an  account  with  him,  they 
silenced  him  by  threatening  to  disclose  his  charac- 
ter ;  the  merchants  thus  proving  themselves  as  good 
pirates  on  land  as  he  was  at  sea. 

"Whether  he  was  frightened  by  these  menaces, 
or  had  seen  some  other  person  who  recognized  him, 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      395 

is  not  known.  However,  he  went  immediately  to  Ire- 
land, and  from  thence  solicited  his  merchants  very 
strongly  for  a  supply,  but  to  no  purpose ;  so  that  he 
was  reduced  to  beggary.  In  this  extremity  he  was 
determined  to  return  and  cast  himself  upon  the 
mercy  of  these  honest  Bristol  merchants,  let  the  con- 
sequence be  what  it  would.  He  went  on  board  a 
trading  vessel,  and  worked  his  passage  over  to 
Plymouth,  from  whence  he  traveled  on  foot  to  Bide- 
ford.  He  had  been  there  but  a  few  days  when  he 
fell  sick  and  died ;  not  being  worth  so  much  as  would 
buy  a  coffin." 

That  very  atrocious  pirate,  Charles  Gibbs,  squan- 
dered most  of  his  treasure,  but  it  may  be  some  con- 
solation to  know  that  $20,000  of  it,  in  silver  coin, 
was  buried  on  the  beach  of  Long  Island,  a  few  miles 
from  Southampton,  as  attested  by  the  records  of  the 
United  States  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of 
New  York.  Captain  Gibbs  was  a  thoroughly  bad 
egg,  from  first  to  last,  and  quite  modern,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note,  for  he  was  hanged  as  recently  as  1831. 
He  was  born  in  Rhode  Island,  raised  on  a  farm,  and 
ran  away  to  sea  in  the  navy.  It  is  to  his  credit  that 
he  is  said  to  have  served  on  board  the  Chesapeake 
in  her  famous  battle  with  the  Shannon,  but  after  his 
release  from  Dartmoor  as  a  British  prisoner  of  war, 
he  fell  from  grace  and  opened  a  grogery  in  Ann 
Street,  called  the  Tin  Pot,  "a  place  full  of  aban- 
doned women  and  dissolute  fellows.' '  He  drank  up 
all  the  profits,  so  went  to  sea  again  and  found  a 
berth  in  a  South  American  privateer.  Leading  a 
mutiny,  he  gained  the  ship  and  made  a  pirate  of 
her,  frequenting  Havana,  and  plundering  merchant 
vessels  along  the  Cuban  coast.  He  slaughtered  their 
crews  in  cold  blood  and  earned  an  infamous  repu- 


396         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

tation  for  cruelty.  In  his  confession  written  while 
he  was  under  sentence  of  death  in  New  York,  he 
stated  "that  some  time  in  the  course  of  the  year 
1819,  he  left  Havana  and  came  to  the  United  States, 
bringing  with  him  about  $30,000  in  gold.  He  passed 
several  weeks  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  then 
went  to  Boston,  whence  he  took  passage  for  Liver- 
pool in  the  ship  Emerald.  Before  he  sailed,  how- 
ever, he  had  squandered  a  large  amount  of  his  money 
by  dissipation  and  gambling.  He  remained  in  Liv- 
erpool a  few  months,  and  then  returned  to  Boston. 
His  residence  in  Liverpool  at  that  time  is  satisfac- 
torily ascertained  from  another  source  beside  his 
own  confession.  A  female  now  in  New  York  was 
well  acquainted  with  him  there,  where,  she  says,  he 
lived  like  a  gentleman,  apparently  with  abundant 
means  of  support.  In  speaking  of  his  acquaintance 
with  this  female,  he  says, 'I  fell  in  with  a  woman 
who  I  thought  was  all  virtue,  but  she  deceived  me, 
and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  a  heart  that  never 
felt  abashed  at  scenes  of  carnage  and  blood,  was 
made  a  child  of  for  a  time  by  her,  and  I  gave  way 
to  dissipation  to  drown  the  torment.  How  often 
when  the  fumes  of  liquor  have  subsided  have  I 
thought  of  my  good  and  affectionate  parents,  and  of 
their  Godlike  advice!  My  friends  advised  me  to 
behave  myself  like  a  man,  and  promised  me  their  as- 
sistance, but  the  demon  still  haunted  me,  and  I 
spurned  their  advice.'  "  * 

After  the  adventure  with  the  deceitful  female, 
Gibbs  was  not  as  successful  as  formerly  in  his  pro- 
fession of  piracy,  and  appears  to  have  lost  his  grip. 
For  several  years  he  knocked  about  the  Seven  Seas, 

i  The  Pirates'  Own  Book. 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      397 

in  one  sort  of  shady  escapade  or  another,  but  he 
flung  away  whatever  gold  he  harvested  and  was 
driven  to  commit  the  sordid  crime  which  brought 
him  to  the  gallows.  In  November  of  1830,  he  shipped 
as  a  seaman  in  the  brig  Vineyard,  Captain  William 
Thornby,  from  New  Orleans  to  Philadelphia  with  a 
cargo  of  cotton  and  molasses,  and  $54,000  in  specie. 
Learning  of  the  money  on  board,  Gibbs  cooked  up  a 
conspiracy  to  kill  the  captain  and  the  mate  and  per- 
suaded Thomas  Wansley,  the  steward,  to  help  him 
put  them  out  of  the  way.  According  to  the  testi- 
mony, others  of  the  crew  were  implicated,  but  the 
court  convicted  only  these  two.  The  sworn  state- 
ment of  Seaman  Robert  Dawes  is  as  red-handed  a 
treasure  story  as  could  be  imagined: 

"When  about  five  days  out,  I  was  told  that  there 
was  money  on  board.  Charles  Gibbs,  E.  Church, 
and  the  steward  then  determined  to  take  possession 
of  the  brig.  They  asked  James  Talbot,  another 
member  of  the  crew,  to  join  them.  He  said  no,  as 
he  did  not  believe  there  was  money  in  the  vessel. 
They  concluded  to  kill  the  captain  and  mate,  and  if 
Talbot  and  John  Brownrigg  would  not  join  them, 
to  kill  them  also.  The  next  night  they  talked  of  do- 
ing it,  and  got  their  clubs  ready.  I  dared  not  say  a 
word,  as  they  declared  they  would  kill  me  if  I  did. 
As  they  did  not  agree  about  killing  Talbot  and 
Brownrigg,  their  two  shipmates,  it  was  put  off. 
They  next  concluded  to  kill  the  captain  and  mate 
on  the  night  of  November  22nd  but  did  not  get 
ready;  but  on  the  night  of  the  23rd,  between  twelve 
and  one  o  'clock,  when  I  was  at  the  helm,  the  steward 
came  up  with  a  light  and  a  knife  in  his  hand.  He 
dropped  the  light  and  seizing  the  pump-break,  struck 


398         THE  BOOK  OF  BUKIED  TREASURE 

the  captain  with  it  over  the  head  or  back  of  the  neck. 
The  captain  was  sent  forward  by  the  blow  and  hal- 
loed, 'Oh'  and  'Murder'  once. 

"He  was  then  seized  by  Gibbs  and  the  cook,  one 
by  the  head  and  the  other  by  the  heels  and  thrown 
overboard.  Atwell  and  Church  stood  at  the  com- 
panion way,  to  strike  down  the  mate  when  he  should 
come  up.  As  he  came  up  and  enquired  what  was  the 
matter,  they  struck  him  over  the  head, — he  ran  back 
into  the  cabin,  and  Charles  Gibbs  followed  him  down ; 
but  as  it  was  dark,  he  could  not  find  him.  Gibbs 
then  came  on  deck  for  the  light  with  which  he  re- 
turned below.  I  left  the  helm  to  see  what  was  going 
on  in  the  cabin.  Gibbs  found  the  mate  and  seized 
him,  while  Atwell  and  Church  came  down  and  struck 
him  with  a  pump  break  and  club. 

"The  mate  was  then  dragged  upon  deck.  They 
called  for  me  to  help  them  and  as  I  came  up,  the 
mate  seized  my  hand  and  gave  me  a  death  grip. 
Three  of  them  hove  him  overboard,  but  which  three 
I  do  not  know.  The  mate  was  not  dead  when  cast 
overboard,  but  called  after  us  twice  while  in  the 
water.  I  was  so  frightened  that  I  hardly  knew  what 
to  do.  They  then  asked  me  to  call  Talbot,  who  was 
in  the  forecastle  saying  his  prayers.  He  came  up 
and  said  it  would  be  his  turn  next,  but  they  gave  him 
some  grog  and  told  him  not  to  be  afraid,  as  they 
would  not  hurt  him.  If  he  was  true  to  them,  he 
should  fare  as  well  as  they  did.  One  of  those  who 
had  been  engaged  in  the  bloody  deed  got  drunk  and 
another  became  crazy. 

"After  killing  the  captain  and  mate  they  set  about 
overhauling  the  vessel,  and  got  up  one  keg  of  Mexi- 
can dollars.  Then  they  divided  the  captain's  clothes 
and  money, — about  forty  dollars  and  a  gold  watch. 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      399 

Talbot,  Brownrigg  and  I,  who  were  all  innocent  men, 
were  obliged  to  do  as  we  were  commanded.  I  was 
sent  to  the  helm  and  ordered  to  steer  for  Long  Is- 
land. On  the  day  following,  they  divided  several 
kegs  of  the  specie,  amounting  to  five  thousand  dol- 
lars each,  and  made  bags  and  sewed  the  money  up. 
After  this  division,  they  divided  the  rest  of  the 
money  without  counting  it. 

"On  Sunday,  when  about  fifteen  miles  S.S.E.  of 
Southampton  Light,  they  got  the  boats  out  and  put 
half  the  money  in  each,  and  then  they  scuttled  the 
vessel  and  set  fire  to  it  in  the  cabin,  and  took  to  the 
boats.  Gibbs,  after  the  murder,  took  charge  of  the 
vessel  as  captain.  From  the  papers  on  board,  we 
learned  that  the  money  belonged  to  Stephen  Gi- 
rard.2 

"With  the  boats  we  made  the  land  about  daylight. 
I  was  in  the  long-boat  with  three  others.  The  rest 
with  Atwell  were  in  the  jolly-boat.  On  coming  to  the 
bar  the  boats  stuck,  and  we  threw  overboard  a  great 
deal  of  money,  in  all  about  five  thousand  dollars. 
The  jolly-boat  foundered.  "We  saw  it  fill  and  heard 
them  cry  out,  and  saw  them  clinging  to  the  masts. 
We  went  ashore  on  Barron  Island,  and  buried  the 
money  in  the  sand,  but  very  lightly.  Soon  after, 
we  met  with  a  gunner,  whom  we  requested  to  conduct 
us  where  we  could  get  some  refreshments.  They 
were  by  him  conducted  to  Johnson's  (the  only  man 
living  on  the  island)  where  we  stayed  all  night.  I 
went  to  bed  about  ten  o'clock.  Jack  Brownrigg  sat 
up  with  Johnson,  and  in  the  morning  told  me  that  he 
had  told  Johnson  all  about  the  murders.  Johnson 
went  in  the  morning  with  the  steward  for  the  clothes, 
which  were  left  on  the  top  of  the  place  where  they 

2  The  famous  merchant  and  philanthropist  of  Philadelphia. 


400         THE  BOOK  OF.  BURIED  TREASURE 

buried  the  money,  but  I  don't  believe  they  took  away 
the  money. " 

Here  was  genuine  buried  treasure,  but  the  cir- 
cumstances were  such  as  to  make  the  once  terrible 
Captain  Charles  Gibbs  cut  a  wretched  figure.  To 
the  ignominious  crime  of  killing  the  captain  and  the 
mate  of  a  little  trading  brig  had  descended  this  free- 
booter of  renown  who  had  numbered  his  prizes  by 
the  score  and  boasted  of  slaying  their  crews  whole- 
sale. As  for  the  specie  looted  from  the  brig  Vine- 
yard, half  the  amount  was  lost  in  the  surf  when  the 
jolly-boat  foundered,  and  the  remainder  buried  where 
doubtless  that  hospitable  resident,  Johnson,  was  able 
to  find  most  of  it.  Silver  dollars  were  too  heavy  to 
be  carried  away  in  bulk  by  stranded  pirates,  fleeing 
the  law,  and  these  rascals  got  no  good  of  their  plun- 
der. 

Glance  at  the  sin-stained  roster  of  famous  pirates, 
Edward  Low,  Captain  England,  Captain  Thomas 
White,  Benito  De  Soto,  Captain  Eoberts,  Captain 
John  Eackham,  Captain  Thomas  Tew,  and  most  of 
the  bloody  crew,  and  it  will  be  found  that  either  they 
wasted  their  treasure  in  debaucheries,  or  were 
hanged,  shot,  or  drowned  with  empty  pockets.  Of 
them  all,  Blackbeard3  fills  the  eye  most  struttingly 
as  the  proper  pirate  to  have  buried  treasure.  He 
was  immensely  theatrical,  fond  of  playing  the  part 
right  up  to  the  hilt,  and  we  may  rest  assured  that  un- 
less his  sudden  taking-off  prevented,  he  was  at  pains 

a  "I  happen  to  know  the  fact  that  Blackbeard,  whose  family  name 
was  given  as  Teach,  was  in  reality  named  Drumond,  a  native  of 
Bristol.  I  have  learned  this  fact  from  one  of  his  family  and  name, 
of  respectable  standing  in  Virginia,  near  Hampton."  (Watson's 
Annals  of  Philadelphia.) 

In  the  contemporary  court  records  of  the  Carolina  colony,  the 
name  of  Blackbeard  is  given  as  Thatch. 


Gibbs  and  Wansley  burying  the  treasure. 


The  Portuguese  captain  cutting  away  the  bag  of  moidores. 

(From    The    Pirates'    Oun    Book.) 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      401 

to  bury  at  least  one  sea-chest  full  of  treasure  in  or- 
der to  live  up  to  the  best  traditions  of  his  calling. 
He  was  prosperous,  and  unlike  most  of  his  lesser 
brethren,  suffered  no  low  tides  of  fortune.  By 
rights,  he  should  be  a  far  more  famous  character 
than  Captain  William  Kidd  whose  commonplace 
career  was  so  signally  devoid  of  purple  patches. 
Blackbeard  was  a  pirate  " right  out  of  a  book,"  as 
the  saying  is.  How  this  Captain  Edward  Teach 
swaggered  through  the  streets  of  Charleston  and 
terrorized  the  Carolinas  and  Bermuda  is  an  old 
story,  as  is  also  the  thrilling  narrative  of  his  capture, 
after  a  desperate  battle,  by  brave  Lieutenant  May- 
nard,  who  hung  the  pirate's  head  from  his  bowsprit 
and  sailed  home  in  triumph.  There  are  touches  here 
and  there,  however,  in  the  authentic  biography  of 
Blackbeard  which  seem  to  belong  in  a  discussion  of 
buried  treasure,  for  he  was  so  very  much  the  kind  of 
flamboyant  rogue  that  legend  paints  as  infernally 
busy  with  pick  and  shovel  on  dark  and  lonely  beaches. 

Blackbeard  is  the  hero  of  such  extremely  diverting 
tales  as  these,  which  sundry  writers  have  not 
scrupled  to  appropriate,  either  for  purposes  of  fic- 
tion or  unblushingly  to  fit  them  to  poor  Captain  Kidd 
as  chronicles  of  fact : 

1 'In  the  commonwealth  of  pirates,  he  who  goes 
the  greatest  length  of  wickedness  is  looked  upon 
with  a  kind  of  envy  amongst  them,  as  a  person  of  a 
most  extraordinary  gallantry.  He  is  therefore  en- 
titled to  be  distinguished  by  some  post,  and  if  such  a 
one  has  but  courage,  he  must  certainly  be  a  great 
man.  The  hero  of  whom  we  are  writing  was  thor- 
oughly accomplished  in  this  way,  and  some  of  his 
frolics  of  wickedness  were  as  extravagant  as  if  he 
aimed  at  making  his  men  believe  he  was  a  devil  in- 


402         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

carnate.  Being  one  day,  at  sea,  and  a  little  flushed 
with  drink;  'Come,'  said  he,  'let  us  make  a  hell  of 
our  own,  and  try  how  long  we  can  bear  it.'  Accord- 
ingly he,  with  two  or  three  others,  went  down  into 
the  hold,  and  closing  up  all  the  hatches,  filled  several 
pots  full  of  brimstone,  and  other  combustible  mat- 
ter. They  then  set  it  on  fire,  and  so  continued  till 
they  were  almost  suffocated,  when  some  of  the  men 
cried  out  for  air.  At  length  he  opened  the  hatches, 
not  a  little  pleased  that  he  had  held  out  the  longest. 

1 '  One  night,  Blackbeard,  drinking  in  his  cabin  with 
Israel  Hands,4  and  the  pilot,  and  another  man,  with- 
out any  pretense  took  a  small  pair  of  pistols,  and 
cocked  them  under  the  table.  Which  being  per- 
ceived by  the  man,  he  went  on  deck,  leaving  the  cap- 
tain, Hands,  and  the  pilot  together.  When  his  pis- 
tols were  prepared,  he  extinguished  the  candle, 
crossed  his  arms  and  fired  at  the  company,  under  the 
table.  The  one  pistol  did  no  execution,  but  the  other 
wounded  Hands  in  the  knee.  Interrogated  concern- 
ing the  meaning  of  this,  he  answered  with  an  impre- 
cation, '  That  if  he  did  not  now  and  then  kill  one  of 
them,  they  would  forget  who  he  was. '  ' ' 

"In  Blackbeard 's  journal,  which  was  taken,  there 
were  several  memoranda  of  the  following  nature,  all 
written  with  his  own  hand. — 'Such  a  day,  rum  all 
out; — our  company  somewhat  sober; — a  damned 
confusion  amongst  us!  rogues  a-plotting; — great 
talk  of  separation; — so  I  looked  sharp  for  a  prize; 

*  Israel  Hands  was  tried  and  condemned  with  Blackbeard's  crew, 
but  was  pardoned  by  royal  proclamation,  and,  according  to  Captain 
Johnson,  "was  alive  some  time  ago  in  London,  begging  his  bread." 
This  would  indicate  that  he  had  buried  no  treasure  of  his  own,  and 
had  not  fathomed  Blackbeard's  secret.  Stevenson  borrowed  the 
name  of  Israel  Hands  for  one  of  his  crew  of  pirates  in  "Treasure 
Island.'" 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      403 

such  a  day  took  one  with  a  great  deal  of  liquor  on 
board;  so  kept  the  company  hot,  damned  hot,  then 
all  things  went  well  again. '  ' ' 

"Blackbeard  derived  his  name  from  his  long 
black  beard,  which,  like  a  frightful  meteor,  covered 
his  whole  face,  and  terrified  all  America  more  than 
any  comet  that  has  ever  appeared.  He  was  ac- 
customed to  twist  it  with  ribbon  in  small  quantities, 
and  turn  them  about  his  ears.  In  time  of  action  he 
wore  a  sling  over  his  shoulder  with  three  braces  of 
pistols.  He  stuck  lighted  matches  under  his  hat, 
which  appearing  on  both  sides  of  his  face  and  eyes, 
naturally  fierce  and  wild,  made  him  such  a  figure  that 
the  human  imagination  cannot  form  a  conception  of 
a  fury  more  terrible  and  alarming. ' ' 5 

In  the  best  account  of  his  melodramatic  exit  from 
the  life  which  he  had  adorned  with  so  much  distinc- 
tion, there  is  a  reference  to  buried  treasure  that  must 
be  set  down  as  a  classic  of  its  kind. 

"Upon  the  17th  of  November,  1717,  Lieutenant 
Maynard  left  James 's  Eiver  in  quest  of  Blackbeard. 
and  on  the  evening  of  the  21st  came  in  sight  of  the 
pirate.  This  expedition  was  fitted  out  with  all  pos- 
sible secrecy,  no  boat  being  permitted  to  pass  that 
might  convey  any  intelligence,  while  care  was  taken 
to  discover  where  the  pirates  were  lurking.  .  .  . 
The  hardened  and  infatuated  pirate,  having  been 
often  deceived  by  false  intelligence,  was  the  less  at- 
tentive, nor  was  he  convinced  of  his  danger  until  he 
saw  the  sloops  sent  to  apprehend  him.  Though  he 
had  then  only  twenty  men  on  board,  he  prepared  to 
give  battle.  Lieutenant  Maynard  arrived  with  his 
sloops  in  the  evening  and  anchored,  as  he  could  not 

«>  The  Pirates'  Own  Book. 


404         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

venture,  under  cloud  of  night,  to  go  into  the  place 
where  Blackbeard  lay. 

"The  latter  spent  the  night  in  drinking  with  the 
master  of  a  trading  vessel,  with  the  same  indiffer- 
ence as  if  no  danger  had  been  near.  Nay,  such  was 
the  desperate  wickedness  of  this  villain,  that,  it  is 
reported,  during  the  carousals  of  that  night,  one  of 
his  men  asked  him,  'In  case  anything  should  happen 
to  him  during  the  engagement  with  the  two  sloops 
which  were  waiting  to  attack  him  in  the  morning, 
whether  his  wife  knew  where  he  had  buried  his 
money?'  To  this  he  impiously  replied,  'That  no- 
body but  himself  and  the  devil  knew  where  it  was, 
and  the  longest  liver  should  take  all. ' 

"In  the  morning  Maynard  weighed,  and  sent  his 
boat  to  take  soundings,  which,  coming  near  the  pi- 
rate, received  her  fire.  Maynard  then  hoisted  royal 
colors,  and  directly  toward  Blackbeard  with  every 
sail  and  oar.  In  a  little  while  the  pirate  ran 
aground,  and  so  did  the  king's  vessels.  Maynard 
lightened  his  vessel  of  the  ballast  and  water  and 
made  towards  Blackbeard.  Upon  this,  the  pirate 
hailed  in  his  own  rude  style.  '  Damn  you  for  villains, 
who  are  you,  and  from  whence  come  you?'  The 
lieutenant  answered,  'You  may  see  from  our  colors 
we  are  no  pirates.'  Blackbeard  bade  him  send  his 
boat  on  board,  that  he  might  see  who  he  was.  But 
Maynard  replied,  'I  cannot  spare  my  boat,  but  I  will 
come  on  board  of  you  as  soon  as  I  can  with  my 
sloop. '  Upon  this  Blackbeard  took  a  glass  of  liquor 
and  drank  to  him,  saying,  'I'll  give  no  quarter  nor 
take  any  from  you.'  Maynard  replied,  'He  expected 
no  quarter  from  him,  nor  should  he  take  any. '  " G 

e  This  is  from  The  Pirates'  Own  Book.  Captain  Johnson's  version 
is  unexpurgated  and  to  be  preferred,  for  he  declares  that  Black- 


Interview  between  Lafitte,  General  Andrew  Jackson,  and 
Governor  Claiborne. 


74X  WTEm 
The  death  of  Black  Beard. 

(From    The    Pirates'    Own    Book.) 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      405 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  devil  fell  heir  to 
Blackbeard's  treasure,  inasmuch  as  Lieutenant 
Maynard  and  his  men  fairly  cut  the  pirate  and  his 
crew  to  pieces.  Turn  we  now  from  such  marauders 
as  this  to  that  greater  generation  of  buccaneers,  so 
called,  who  harried  the  Spanish  treasure  fleets  and 
towns  in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the  coasts  of  the 
Isthmus  and  South  and  Central  America.  During 
the  period  when  Port  Royal,  Jamaica,  was  the  head- 
quarters and  recruiting  station  for  these  pictur- 
esque cut-throats,  and  Sir  Henry  Morgan  was  their 
bright,  particular  star,  there  is  the  testimony  of  an 
eye-witness  and  participant  to  show  that  the  blood- 
stained gold  seldom  tarried  long  enough  with  its 
owners  to  permit  of  burying  it,  and  that  they  both- 
ered their  wicked  heads  very  little  about  safeguard- 
ing the  future. 

Captain  Bartholomew  Roberts,  that  ''tall,  black 
man,  nearly  forty  years  old,  whose  favorite  toast 
was  'Damnation  to  him  who  ever  lives  to  wear  a 
halter, '  ' '  was  snuffed  out  in  an  action  with  a  King 's 
ship,  and  the  manner  of  his  life  and  melodramatic 
quality  of  his  death  suggest  that  he  be  mentioned 
herein  as  worthy  of  a  place  beside  Blackbeard  him- 
self. Roberts  has  been  overlooked  by  buried  treas- 
ure legend,  and  this  is  odd,  for  he  was  a  figure  to 
inspire  such  tales.  His  flamboyant  career  opened  in 
1719  and  was  successful  until  the  British  man-of- 
war  Swallow  overhauled  him  on  the  African  coast. 
His  biographer,  Captain  Charles  Johnson,  writing 
while  the  episode  was  less  than  a  decade  old  and 
when  the  facts  were  readily  obtainable,  left  us  this 
fine  picture  of  the  fight : 

beard  cried  out,  "Damnation  seize  my  soul  if  I  give  you  quarter,  or 
take  any  from  you." 


406         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

"Boberts  himself  made  a  gallant  figure  at  the 
time  of  the  engagement,  being  dressed  in  a  rich 
crimson  damask  waistcoat  and  breeches,  a  red 
feather  in  his  hat,  a  gold  chain  round  his  neck,  with 
a  diamond  cross  hanging  to  it,  a  sword  in  his  hand, 
and  two  pair  of  pistols  hanging  at  the  end  of  a  silk 
sling  flung  over  his  shoulder  (according  to  the 
fashion  of  the  pirates).  He  is  said  to  have  given 
his  orders  with  boldness  and  spirit ;  coming,  accord- 
ing to  what  he  had  purposed,  close  to  the  man  of 
war,  received  her  fire,  and  then  hoisted  his  black 
flag 7  and  returned  it ;  shooting  away  from  her  with 
all  the  sail  he  could  pack.  .  .  .  But  keeping  his 
tacks  down,  either  by  the  wind's  shifting  or  ill  steer- 
age, or  both,  he  was  taken  aback  with  his  sails,  and 
the  Swallow  came  a  second  time  very  nigh  to  him. 
He  had  now  perhaps  finished  the  fight  very  desper- 
ately if  Death,  who  took  a  swift  passage  in  a  grape- 
shot,  had  not  interposed  and  struck  him  directly  on 
the  throat. 

"He  settled  himself  on  the  tackles  of  a  gun,  which 
one  Stephenson  from  the  helm,  observing,  ran  to  his 
assistance,  and  not  perceiving  him  wounded,  swore 
at  him  and  bid  him  stand  up  like  a  man.  But  when 
he  found  his  mistake,  and  that  Captain  Eoberts  was 
certainly  dead,  he  gushed  into  tears  and  wished  the 
next  shot  might  be  his  lot.  They  presently  threw 
him  overboard,  with  his  arms  and  ornaments  on,  ac- 
cording to  the  repeated  requests  he  had  made  in  his 
life." 

7  As  showing  the  fanciful  tastes  in  sinister  flags,  Captain  Johnson 
records  that  Captain  Roberts  flew  "a  black  silk  flag  at  the  mizzen 
peak,  and  a  jack  and  pendant  at  the  same.  The  flag  had  a  death's 
head  on  it,  with  an  hour  glass  in  one  hand,  and  cross  bones  in  the 
other,  a  dart  by  one,  and  underneath  a  heart  dropping  three  drops  of 
blood." 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY     407 

There  was  no  treasure  for  the  stout-hearted 
scoundrels  who  were  captured  by  the  Swallow. 
They  had  diced  with  fortune  and  lost,  and  Execu- 
tion Dock  was  waiting  for  them,  but  they  are  worth  a 
passing  acquaintance  and  it  gives  one  a  certain  sat- 
isfaction to  learn  that  "they  were  impudently  merry, 
saying  when  they  viewed  their  nakedness,  'That 
they  had  not  one  half  penny  left  to  give  old  Charon 
to  ferry  them  over  the  Styx, '  and  at  their  thin  com- 
mons they  would  observe  that  they  fell  away  so  fast 
that  they  should  not  have  weight  enough  to  hang 
them.  Sutton  used  to  be  very  profane,  and  he  hap- 
pening to  be  in  the  same  irons  with  another  prisoner 
who  was  more  serious  than  ordinary  and  read  and 
prayed  often,  as  became  his  condition,  this  man  Sut- 
ton used  to  swear  and  ask  him,  'What  he  proposed 
by  so  much  noise  and  devotion?'  'Heaven,  I  hope,' 
says  the  other.  'Heaven,  you  fool,'  says  Sutton, 
'Did  you  ever  hear  of  any  pirate  going  thither? 
Give  me  Hell.  It  is  a  merrier  place.  I'll  give  Kob- 
erts  a  salute  of  thirteen  guns  at  entrance.'  " 

After  Morgan  had  sacked  the  rich  city  of  Porto 
Bello,  John  Esquemeling  wrote  of  the  expedition : 8 

"With  these  (ships)  he  arrived  in  a  few  days  at 
the  Island  of  Cuba,  where  he  sought  out  a  place 
wherein  with  all  quiet  and  repose  he  might  make  the 
dividend  of  the  spoil  they  had  got.  They  found  in 
ready  money  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pieces 
of  eight,  besides  all  other  merchandises,  as  cloth, 

s  The  Buccaneers  of  America.  A  True  Account  of  the  Most  Re- 
markable Assaults  Committed  of  Late  Years  Upon  the  Coasts  of  the 
West  Indies  by  the  Buccaneers  of  Jamaica  and  Tortuga  (Both  Eng- 
lish and  French).  Wherein  are  contained  more  especially  the  Un- 
paralleled Exploits  of  Sir  Henry  Morgan,  our  English  Jamaican 
hero  who  sacked  Porto  Bello,  burnt  Panama,  etc.  (Published  in 
1684.) 


408        THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

linen,  silks,  and  other  goods.  With  this  rich  booty 
they  sailed  again  thence  to  their  common  place  of 
rendezvous,  Jamaica.  Being  arrived,  they  passed 
here  some  time  in  all  sorts  of  vices  and  debauchery, 
according  to  their  common  manner  of  doing,  spend- 
ing with  huge  prodigality  what  others  had  gained 
with  no  small  labor  and  toil. ' ' 

".  .  .  Such  of  these  Pirates  are  found  who  will 
spend  two  or  three  thousand  pieces  of  eight  in  one 
night,  not  leaving  themselves,  peradventure,  a  good 
shirt  to  wear  on  their  backs  in  the  morning.  My 
own  master  would  buy,  on  like  occasions,  a  whole 
pipe  of  wine,  and  placing  it  in  the  street,  would 
force  everyone  that  passed  by  to  drink  with  him; 
threatening  also  to  pistol  them  in  case  they  would 
not  do  it.  At  other  times,  he  would  do  the  same 
with  barrels  of  ale  or  beer.  And,  very  often,  with 
both  his  hands,  he  would  throw  these  liquors  about 
the  streets  and  wet  the  clothes  of  such  as  walked  by, 
without  regarding  whether  he  spoiled  their  apparel 
or  not,  were  they  men  or  women. 

''Among  themselves,  and  to  each  other,  these  Pi- 
rates are  extremely  liberal  and  free.  If  any  one 
of  them  has  lost  his  goods,  which  often  happens  in 
their  manner  of  life,  they  freely  give  him,  and  make 
him  partaker  of  what  they  have.  In  taverns  and 
ale-houses  they  always  have  great  credit;  but  in 
such  houses  at  Jamaica  they  ought  not  to  run  very 
deep  in  debt,  seeing  the  inhabitants  of  that  island 
easily  sell  one  another  for  debt.  Thus  it  happened 
to  my  patron,  or  master,  to  be  sold  for  a  debt  of  a 
tavern  wherein  he  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  his 
money.  This  man  had,  within  the  space  of  three 
months  before,  three  thousand  pieces  of  eight  in 
ready   cash,    all   which   he   wasted   in    that    short 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      409 

space  of  time,  and  became  as  poor  as  I  have  told 
you. ' ' 

The  same  free-handed  and  lurid  manner  of  life 
prevailed  on  the  little  island  of  Tortuga,  off  the 
coast  of  Hayti,  where  the  French  and  English  buc- 
caneers had  a  lawless  kingdom  of  their  own.  In 
his  account  of  the  career  of  the  infamous  L'Ollonais, 
Esquemeling  goes  on  to  say : 

"Departing  therefore  thence,  they  took  their 
course  towards  the  island  Hispaniola,  and  arrived 
thither  in  eight  days,  casting  anchor  in  a  port  called 
Isla  de  la  Vaca,  or  Cow  Island.  This  isle  is  inhab- 
ited by  French  buccaneers 9  who  most  commonly 
sell  the  flesh  they  hunt  to  Pirates  and  others  who 
now  and  then  put  in  there  with  intent  of  victualing 
or  trading  with  them.  Here  they  unladed  the 
whole  cargo  of  riches  which  they  had  robbed;  the 
usual  storehouse  of  the  Pirates  being  commonly  un- 
der the  shelter  of  the  buccaneers.  Here  also  they 
made  a  dividend  amongst  them  of  all  of  their  prizes 
and  gains,  according  to  that  order  and  degree  which 
belonged  to  everyone.  Having  cast  up  the  account 
and  made  exact  calculation  of  all  they  had  pur- 
chased, they  found  in  ready  money  two  hundred  and 
three-score  thousand  pieces  of  eight.  Whereupon, 
this  being  divided,  everyone  received  to  his  share  in 
money,  and  also  in  pieces  of  silk,  linen  and  other 
commodities,  the  value  of  above  hundred  pieces  of 

9  The  buccaneers  derived  their  name  from  the  process  of  drying 
beef  over  a  wood  fire,  or  boucane  in  French.  They  were  at  first 
hunters  of  wild  cattle  in  the  island  of  Hispaniola  or  Hayti  who 
disposed  of  their  product  to  smugglers,  traders,  and  pirates,  but 
they  were  a  distinct  class  from  the  filibustiers  or  sea  rovers.  As 
cattle  became  scarce  and  the  Spanish  more  hostile  and  cruel  foes, 
the  buccaneers,  French  and  English,  forsook  their  trade  and  took 
to  the  sea,  to  harry  the  common  foe. 


410         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

eight.  Those  who  had  been  wounded  in  this  expe- 
dition received  their  part  before  all  the  rest ;  I  mean 
such  recompenses  as  I  spoke  of  the  first  Book,  for 
the  loss  of  their  limbs  which  many  sustained.10 

"Afterwards  they  weighed  all  the  plate  that  was 
uncoined,  reckoning  after  the  rate  of  ten  pieces  of 
eight  for  every  pound.  The  jewels  were  prized  with 
much  variety,  either  at  too  high  or  too  low  rates; 
being  thus  occasioned  by  their  own  ignorance.  This 
being  done,  everyone  was  put  to  his  oath  again,  that 
he  had  not  concealed  anything  nor  subtracted  from 
the  common  stock.  Hence  they  proceeded  to  the 
dividend  of  what  shares  belonged  to  such  as  were 
dead  amongst  them,  either  in  battle  or  otherwise. 
These  shares  were  given  to  their  friends  to  be  kept 
entire  for  them,  and  to  be  delivered  in  due  time  to 
their  nearest  relatives,  or  whomsoever  should  ap- 
pear to  be  their  lawful  heirs. 

"The  whole  dividend  being  entirely  finished,  they 
set  sail  thence  for  the  Isle  of  Tortuga.  Here  they 
arrived  one  month  after,  to  the  great  joy  of  most 
that  were  upon  the  island.  For  as  to  the  common 
Pirates,  in  three  weeks  they  had  scarce  any  money 
left  them;  having  spent  it  all  in  things  of  little 
value,  or  at  play  either  at  cards  or  dice.  Here  also 
arrived,  not  long  before  them,  two  French  ships 
laden  with  wine  and  brandy  and  other  things  of  this 

10  The  schedule  thus  referred  to  stipulated  that  for  the  crew, 
except  the  officers  specified,  it  was  a  case  of  "no  prey,  no  pay." 
For  the  loss  of  a  right  arm,  the  consolation  money  was  six  hundred 
pieces  of  eight,  or  six  slaves;  for  the  loss  of  a  left  arm,  five  hundred 
pieces  of  eight,  or  five  slaves;  for  the  left  leg,  four  hundred  pieces 
of  eight,  or  four  slaves;  for  an  eye  one  hundred  pieces  of  eight,  or 
one  slave;  for  a  finger  of  the  hand  the  same  reward  as  for  the  eye. 
"All  which  sums  of  money,  as  I  have  said  before,  are  taken  out 
of  the  capital  sum  or  common  stock  of  what  is  got  by  their  piracy." 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY     4ir 

kind;  whereby  these  liquors,  at  the  arrival  of  the 
Pirates,  were  sold  indifferent  cheap.  But  this 
lasted  not  long;  for  soon  after  they  were  enhanced 
extremely,  a  gallon  of  brandy  being  sold  for  four 
pieces  of  eight.  The  Governor  of  the  island  bought 
of  the  Pirates  the  whole  cargo  of  the  ship  laden  with 
cacao,  giving  them  for  that  rich  commodity  scarce 
the  twentieth  part  of  what  it  was  worth.  Thus  they 
made  shift  to  lose  and  spend  the  riches  they  had  got 
in  much  less  time  than  they  were  purchased  by  rob- 
bing. The  taverns,  according  to  the  custom  of  Pi- 
rates, got  the  greatest  part  thereof;  insomuch  that 
soon  after  they  were  constrained  to  seek  more  by 
the  same  unlawful  means  they  had  obtained  the  pre- 
ceding. ' ' 

Morgan  himself  buried  none  of  his  vast  treasure, 
although  legend  persists  in  saying  so,  nor  did  he 
waste  it  in  riotous  living.  From  the  looting  of 
Panama  alone  he  took  booty  to  the  value  of  two 
million  dollars  as  his  share,  and  he  had  no  need  to 
hide  it.  He  was  thought  so  well  of  in  England  that 
Charles  II  knighted  him,  and  he  was  appointed 
Commissary  of  the  Admiralty.  For  some  time  he 
lived  in  England,  published  his  Voyage  to  Panama 
in  1683,  and  spent  his  remaining  years  in  Jamaica 
as  an  opulent  and  influential  person  in  high  favor 
with  the  ruling  powers,  and  a  terror  to  the  luckless, 
beggared  comrades  who  had  helped  him  win  his 
fortune.  As  governor  of  the  island  he  hanged  as 
many  as  he  could  lay  hands  on,  a  kind  of  ingratitude 
not  at  all  inconsistent  with  the  traits  of  character 
he  had  displayed  as  a  pirate.  He  did  not  hesitate 
to  rob  his  own  men,  according  to  Esquemeling  from 
whose  narrative  of  the  great  expedition  against 
Panama   the    following  paragraphs   are   taken   as 


412         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

indicative  of  the  methods  of  this  great  freebooter 
of  the  Spanish  Main: 

"Not  long  after  Captain  Morgan  arrived  at 
Jamaica,  he  found  many  of  his  chief  officers  and 
soldiers  reduced  to  their  former  state  of  indigence 
through  their  immoderate  vices  and  debauchery. 
Hence  they  ceased  not  to  importune  him  for  new 
invasions  and  exploits,  thereby  to  get  something  to 
expend  anew  in  wine,  as  they  had  already  wasted 
what  was  secured  so  little  before.  Captain  Morgan 
being  willing  to  follow  fortune  while  she  called  him, 
hereupon  stopped  the  mouths  of  many  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Jamaica,  who  were  creditors  to  his  men  for 
large  sums  of  money,  with  the  hopes  and  promises  he 
gave  them  of  greater  achievements  than  ever,  by  a 
new  expedition  he  was  going  about.  This  being  done, 
he  needed  not  give  himself  much  concern  to  levy 
men  for  this  or  any  other  enterprise,  his  name  being 
now  so  famous  through  all  those  islands  that  that 
alone  would  readily  bring  him  in  more  men  than  he 
could  readily  employ.  He  undertook  therefore  to 
equip  a  new  fleet  of  ships;  for  which  purpose  he 
assigned  the  south  side  of  the  Isle  of  Tortuga  as  a 
place  of  rendezvous.  With  this  resolution  he  wrote 
divers  letters  to  all  the  ancient  and  expert  Pirates 
there  inhabiting,  as  also  to  the  Governor  of  the  said 
Isle,  and  to  the  planters  and  hunters  of  Hispaniola, 
giving  them  to  understand  his  intentions,  and  desir- 
ing their  appearance  at  the  said  place,  in  case  they 
intended  to  go  with  him.  All  these  people  had  no 
sooner  understood  his  designs  than  they  flocked  to 
the  place  assigned  in  huge  numbers,  with  ships,  ca- 
noes, and  boats,  being  desirous  to  obey  his  com- 
mands.    .    .    .    Thus  all  were  present  at  the  place 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      413 

assigned,  and  in  readiness,  against  the  24th  day  of 
October,  1670.'  » 

Special  articles  of  agreement  for  the  division  of 
the  treasure  of  Panama  were  drawn  up  by  Morgan 
before  his  fleet  sailed.  "Herein  it  was  stipulated 
that  he  should  have  the  hundredth  part  of  all  that 
was  gotten  to  himself  alone:  That  every  captain 
should  draw  the  shares  of  eight  men,  for  the  ex- 
penses of  his  ship,  besides  his  own:  That  the  sur- 
geon, besides  his  ordinary  pay,  should  have  two  hun- 
dred pieces  of  eight,  for  his  chest  of  medicine :  And 
every  carpenter,  above  his  common  salary,  should 
draw  one  hundred  pieces  of  eight.  Lastly,  unto 
him  that  in  any  battle  should  signalize  himself,  either 
by  entering  the  first  any  castle,  or  taking  down  the 
Spanish  colors  and  setting  up  the  English,  they 
constituted  fifty  pieces  of  eight  for  a  reward.  In 
the  head  of  these  articles  it  was  stipulated  that  all 
these  extraordinary  salaries,  recompenses  and  re- 
wards should  be  paid  out  of  the  first  spoil  or  pur- 
chase they  should  take,  according  as  every  one  should 
then  occur  to  be  either  rewarded  or  paid." 

The  expedition  was  a  gorgeous  success,  for  "on 
the  24th  of  February,  of  the  year  1671,  Captain  Mor- 
gan departed  from  the  city  of  Panama,  or  rather 
from  the  place  where  the  said  city  of  Panama  had 
stood ;  of  the  spoils  whereof  he  carried  with  him  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  beasts  of  carriage,  laden 
with  silver,  gold  and  other  precious  things,  besides 
six  hundred  prisoners,  more  or  less,  between  men, 
women,  children  and  slaves.  .  .  .  About  the 
middle  of  the  way  to  the  castle  of  Chagre,  Captain 
Morgan  commanded  his  men  to  be  placed  in  due 
order,  according  to  their  custom,  and  caused  every 


414         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

one  to  be  sworn  that  they  had  reserved  nor  con- 
cealed nothing  privately  to  themselves,  even  not  so 
much  as  the  value  of  sixpence.  This  being  done, 
Captain  Morgan,  having  had  some  experience  that 
those  lewd  fellows  would  not  much  stickle  to  swear 
falsely  in  points  of  interest,  he  commanded  every 
one  to  be  searched  very  strictly  both  in  their  clothes 
and  satchels  and  everywhere  it  might  be  presumed 
they  had  reserved  anything.  Yea,  to  the  intent  this 
order  might  not  be  ill  taken  by  his  companions,  he 
permitted  himself  to  be  searched,  even  to  the  very 
soles  of  his  shoes.  To  this  office,  by  common  con- 
sent, there  was  assigned  one  out  of  every  company 
to  be  the  searcher  of  all  the  rest.  The  French  Pi- 
rates that  went  on  this  expedition  with  Captain  Mor- 
gan were  not  well  satisfied  with  this  new  custom  of 
searching. 

"From  Chagre,  Captain  Morgan  sent  presently 
after  his  arrival  a  great  boat  to  Porto  Bello,  wherein 
were  all  the  prisoners  he  had  taken  at  the  Isle  of  St. 
Catharine,  demanding  by  them  a  considerable  ran- 
som for  the  castle  of  Chagre,  where  he  then  was, 
threatening  otherwise  to  ruin  and  demolish  it  even 
to  the  ground.  To  this  message  those  of  Porto 
Bello  made  answer:  That  they  would  not  give  one 
farthing  towards  the  ransom  of  the  said  castle,  and 
that  the  English  might  do  with  it  as  they  pleased. 
The  answer  being  come,  the  dividend  was  made  of 
all  the  spoil  they  had  purchased  in  that  voyage. 
Thus  every  company  and  every  particular  person 
therein  included,  received  their  portion  of  what  was 
got;  or  rather,  what  part  thereof  Captain  Morgan 
was  pleased  to  give  them.  For  so  it  was,  that  the 
rest  of  his  companions,  even  of  his  own  nation,  com- 
plained of  his  proceedings  in  this  particular,  and 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      415 

feared  not  to  tell  him  openly  to  his  face  that  he  had 
reserved  the  best  jewels  to  himself.  For  they 
judged  it  impossible  that  no  greater  share  should 
belong  to  them  than  two  hundred  pieces  of  eight  per 
capita,  of  so  many  valuable  booties  and  robberies 
as  they  had  obtained.  Which  small  sum  they 
thought  too  little  reward  for  so  much  labor  and  such 
huge  and  manifest  dangers  as  they  had  so  often  ex- 
posed their  lives  to.  But  Captain  Morgan  was  deaf 
to  all  these  and  many  other  complaints  of  this  kind, 
having  designed  in  his  mind  to  cheat  them  of  as 
much  as  he  could. 

"At  last,  Captain  Morgan  finding  himself  obnox- 
ious to  many  obloquies  and  detractions  among  his 
people,  began  to  fear  the  consequences  thereof,  and 
hereupon  thinking  it  unsafe  to  remain  any  longer 
time  at  Chagre,  he  commanded  the  ordnance  of  the 
said  castle  to  be  carried  on  board  his  ship.  After- 
wards he  caused  the  greatest  part  of  the  walls  to  be 
demolished,  and  the  edifices  to  be  burnt,  and  as  many 
other  things  spoiled  and  ruined  as  could  conven- 
iently be  done  in  a  short  while.  These  orders  being 
performed,  he  went  secretly  on  board  his  own  ship, 
without  giving  any  notice  of  his  departure  to  his 
companions,  nor  calling  any  council,  as  he  used  to  do. 
Thus  he  set  sail  and  put  out  to  sea,  not  bidding  any- 
body adieu,  being  only  followed  by  three  or  four 
vessels  of  the  whole  fleet. 

"These  were  such  (as  the  French  Pirates  be- 
lieved) as  went  shares  with  Captain  Morgan,  to- 
wards the  best  and  greatest  part  of  the  spoil  which 
had  been  concealed  from  them  in  the  dividend.  The 
Frenchmen  could  very  willingly  have  revenged  this 
affront  upon  Captain  Morgan  and  those  that  fol- 
lowed him,  had  they  found  themselves  with  sum- 


416         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

cient  means  to  encounter  him  at  sea.  But  they  were 
destitute  of  most  things  necessary  thereto.  Yea, 
they  had  much  ado  to  find  sufficient  victuals  and  pro- 
visions for  their  voyage  to  Panama,  he  having  left 
them  totally  unprovided  of  all  things.  ' ' 

Esquemeling's  commentary  on  this  base  conduct 
of  the  leader  is  surprisingly  pious:  "Captain  Mor- 
gan left  us  all  in  such  a  miserable  condition  as  might 
serve  for  a  lively  representation  of  what  reward 
attends  wickedness  at  the  latter  end  of  life.  Whence 
we  ought  to  have  learned  how  to  regulate  and  amend 
our  actions  for  the  future." 

Sir  Francis  Drake,  "sea  king  of  the  sixteenth 
century,"  the  greatest  admiral  of  the  time,  belongs 
not  with  the  catalogue  of  pirates  and  buccaneers,  yet 
he  left  a  true  tale  of  buried  treasure  among  his  ex- 
ploits and  it  is  highly  probable  that  some  of  that 
rich  plunder  is  hidden  to-day  in  the  steaming  jungle 
of  the  road  he  took  to  Panama.  There  were  only 
forty-eight  Englishmen  in  the  band  which  he  led  on 
the  famous  raid  to  ambush  the  Spanish  treasure 
train  bound  to  Nombre-de-Dios,  a  century  before 
Morgan's  raiders  crossed  the  Isthmus.  This  first 
attempt  resulted  in  failure,  but  after  sundry  ad- 
ventures, Drake  returned  and  hid  his  little  force 
close  by  that  famous  treasure  port  of  Nombre-de- 
Dios,  where  they  waited  to  hear  the  bells  of  the 
pack-mule  caravan  moving  along  the  trail  from 
Panama.  It  was  at  dawn  when  this  distant,  tinkling 
music  was  first  heard,  and  the  Cimaroons,  or  Indian 
guides,  were  jubilant.  "Now  they  assured  us  we 
should  have  more  Gold  and  Silver  than  all  of  us 
could  bear  away."  Soon  the  Englishmen  had 
glimpses  of  three  royal  treasure  trains  plodding 
along  the  leafy  road,  one  of  fifty  mules,  the  others 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      417 

of  seventy  each,  and  every  one  of  them  laden  with 
three  hundred  pounds  weight  of  silver  bullion,  or 
thirty  tons  in  all.  The  guard  of  forty-five  Spanish 
soldiers  loafed  carelessly  in  front  and  rear,  their 
guns  slung  on  their  backs. 

Drake  and  his  bold  seamen  poured  down  from  a 
hill,  put  the  guard  to  flight,  and  captured  the  car- 
avan with  the  loss  of  only  two  men.  There  was 
more  plunder  than  they  could  carry  back  to  their 
ships  in  a  hasty  retreat,  and  "being  weary,  they 
were  content  with  a  few  bars  and  quoits  of  gold." 
The  silver  was  buried  in  the  expectation  of  return- 
ing for  it  later,  "partly  in  the  burrows  which  the 
great  land-crabs  have  made  in  the  earth,  and  partly 
under  old  trees  which  are  fallen  thereabouts,  and 
partly  in  the  sand  and  gravel  of  a  river  not  very 
deep  of  water." 

Then  began  a  forced  march,  every  man  burdened 
with  all  the  treasure  he  could  carry,  and  behind 
them  the  noise  of  "both  horse  and  foot  coming,  as 
it  seemed,  to  the  mules."  Presently  a  wounded 
French  captain  became  so  exhausted  that  he  had  to 
drop  out,  refusing  to  delay  the  march  and  telling 
the  company  that  he  would  remain  behind  in  the 
woods  with  two  of  his  men,  "in  hope  that  some  rest 
would  recover  his  better  strength."  Ere  long  an- 
other Frenchman  was  missed,  and  investigation  dis- 
covered that  he  had  "drunk  much  wine,"  and 
doubtless  desired  to  sleep  it  off. 

Beaching  Eio  Francisco,  Drake  was  dismayed  to 
find  his  pinnaces  gone,  and  his  party  stranded.  The 
vessels  were  recovered  after  delay  and  perilous  ad- 
venture, whereupon  Drake  hastened  to  prepare 
another  expedition  "to  get  intelligence  in  what  case 
the  country  stood,  and  if  might  be,  recover  Monsieur 


418         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

Tetu,  the  French  captain,  and  leastwise  bring  away 
the  buried  silver."  The  party  was  just  about  to 
start  inland  when  on  the  beach  appeared  one  of  the 
two  men  who  had  stayed  behind  with  the  French 
captain.  At  sight  of  Drake  he  "fell  down  on  his 
knees,  blessing  God  for  the  time  that  ever  our  Cap- 
tain was  born,  who  now  beyond  all  his  hope,  was 
become  his  deliverer.,, 

He  related  that  soon  after  they  had  been  left 
behind  in  the  forest,  the  Spaniards  had  captured 
Captain  Tetu  and  the  other  man.  He  himself  had 
escaped  by  throwing  down  his  treasure  and  taking 
to  his  heels.  Concerning  the  buried  silver,  he  had 
lamentable  tidings  to  impart.  The  Spanish  had  got 
wind  of  it,  and  he  "thought  there  had  been  near  two 
thousand  Spaniards  and  Negroes  there  to  dig  and 
search  for  it."  However,  the  expedition  pushed 
forward,  and  the  news  was  confirmed.  "The  earth 
every  way  a  mile  distant  had  been  digged  and  turned 
up  in  every  place  of  any  likelihood  to  have  anything 
hidden  in  it."  It  was  learned  that  the  general  lo- 
cation of  the  silver  had  been  divulged  to  the  Span- 
iards by  that  rascally  Frenchman  who  had  got 
drunk  and  deserted  during  the  march  to  the  coast. 
He  had  been  caught  while  asleep,  and  the  soldiers 
from  Nombre-de-Dios  tortured  him  until  he  told  all 
that  he  knew  about  the  treasure. 

The  Englishmen  poked  around  and  quickly  found 
"thirteen  bars  of  silver  and  some  few  quoits  of 
gold,"  with  which  they  posted  back  to  Eio  Fran- 
cisco, not  daring  to  linger  in  the  neighborhood  of 
an  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy.  It  was  their 
belief  that  the  Spanish  recovered  by  no  means  all  of 
those  precious  tons  of  silver  bullion,  and  Drake 
made  sail  very  reluctantly.    It  may  well  be  that  a 


SUNDRY  PIRATES  AND  THEIR  BOOTY      419 

handsome  hoard  still  awaits  the  search  of  some 
modern  argonauts,  or  that  the  steam  shovels  of  the 
workmen  of  the  Panama  canal  may  sometime  swing 
aloft  a  burden  of  "bars  of  silver  and  quoits  of  gold" 
in  their  mighty  buckets.  Certain  it  is  that  Sir 
Francis  Drake  is  to  be  numbered  among  that  ro- 
mantic company  of  sea  rovers  of  other  days  who 
buried  vast  treasure  upon  the  Spanish  Main. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

PRACTICAL  HINTS  FOR  TREASURE  SEEKERS 

Faith,  imagination,  and  a  vigorous  physique  com- 
prise the  essential  equipment  of  a  treasure  seeker. 
Capital  is  desirable,  but  not  absolutely  necessary, 
for  it  would  be  hard  indeed  to  find  a  neighborhood 
in  which  some  legend  or  other  of  buried  gold  is  not 
current.  If  one  is  unable  to  finance  an  expedition 
aboard  a  swift,  black-hulled  schooner,  it  is  always 
possible  to  dig  for  the  treasure  of  poor  Captain 
Kidd  and  it  is  really  a  matter  of  small  importance 
that  he  left  no  treasure  in  his  wake.  The  zest  of  the 
game  is  in  seeking.  A  pick  and  a  shovel  are  to  be 
obtained  in  the  wood-shed  or  can  be  purchased  at 
the  nearest  hardware  store  for  a  modest  outlay.  A 
pirate's  chart  is  to  be  highly  esteemed,  but  if  the 
genuine  article  cannot  be  found,  there  are  elderly 
seafaring  men  in  every  port  who  will  furnish  one 
just  as  good  and  perjure  themselves  as  to  the  infor- 
mation thereof  with  all  the  cheerfulness  in  the  world. 

It  has  occurred  to  the  author  that  a  concise  di- 
rectory of  the  best-known  lost  and  buried  treasure 
might  be  of  some  service  to  persons  of  an  adven- 
turous turn  of  mind,  and  the  following  tabloid  guide 
for  ready  reference  may  perhaps  prove  helpful,  par- 
ticularly to  parents  of  small  boys  who  have  designs 
on  pirate  hoards,  as  well  as  to  boys  who  have  never 
grown  up. 

Co  cos  Island.    In  the  Pacific  Ocean  off  the  coast 

420 


HINTS  FOR  TREASURE  SEEKERS  421 

of  Costa  Rica.  Twelve  million  dollars  in  plate,  coin, 
bar  gold,  and  jewels  buried  by  buccaneers  and  by  sea- 
men who  pirated  the  treasure  of  Lima. 

Trinidad.  In  the  South  Atlantic  off  the  coast  of 
Brazil.  The  vast  booty  of  sea-rovers  who  plundered 
the  richest  cities  of  South  America.  A  very  delec- 
table and  well-authenticated  treasure,  indeed,  with 
all  the  proper  charts  and  appurtenances.  Specially 
recommended. 

The  Salvages.  A  group  of  small  islands  to  the 
southward  of  Madeira.  Two  million  dollars  of  sil- 
ver in  chests,  buried  by  the  crew  of  a  Spanish  ship 
in  1804.  They  killed  their  captain  and  laid  him  on 
top  of  the  treasure,  wherefore  proper  precautions 
must  be  taken  to  appease  his  ghost  before  beginning 
to  dig. 

Cape  St.  Vincent.  West  coast  of  Madagascar. 
The  wreck  of  a  Dutch-built  ship  of  great  age  is 
jammed  fast  between  the  rocks.  Gold  and  silver 
money  has  been  washed  from  her  and  cast  up  on  the 
beach,  and  a  large  fortune  still  remains  among  her 
timbers.  Expeditions  are  advised  to  fit  out  at  Mo- 
zambique. 

Venanguebe  Bay,  thirty-five  miles  south  south- 
west of  Ngoncy  Island  on  the  east  coast  of  Mada- 
gascar. A  sunken  treasure  is  supposed  to  be  not 
far  from  the  wreck  of  the  French  frigate  Gloire  lost 
in  1761.  Expeditions  will  do  well  to  keep  a  weather 
eye  lifted  along  all  this  coast  for  the  treasures  of  the 
pirates  who  infested  these  waters  in  the  days  of 
Captain  Kidd. 

Gough  Island,  sometimes  called  Diego  Alvarez. 
Latitude  40°  19'  S.  Longitude  9°  44'  W.  It  is  well 
known  that  on  this  unfrequented  bit  of  sea-washed 
real  estate,  a  very  wicked  pirate  or  pirates  deposited 


422         THE  BOOK  OE  BUEIED  TREASURE 

ill-gotten  gains.  The  place  to  dig  is  close  to  a  con- 
spicuous spire  or  pinnacle  of  stone  on  the  western 
end  of  the  island,  the  name  of  which  natural  land- 
mark is  set  down  on  the  charts  as  Church  Rock. 

Juan  Fernandez.  South  Pacific.  Famed  as  the 
abode  of  Robinson  Crusoe  who  was  too  busy  writing 
the  story  of  his  life  to  find  the  buccaneer's  wealth 
concealed  in  a  cave,  also  the  wreck  of  a  Spanish  gal- 
leon reputed  to  have  been  laden  with  bullion  from 
the  mines  of  Peru. 

Auckland  Islands.  Remote  and  far  to  the  south- 
ward and  hardly  to  be  recommended  to  the  amateur 
treasure  seeker  who  had  better  serve  his  apprentice- 
ship nearer  home.  Frequently  visited  by  expedi- 
tions from  Melbourne  and  Sydney.  In  1866,  the 
sailing  ship  General  Grant,  bound  from  Australia  to 
London,  was  lost  here.  In  her  cargo  were  fifty 
thousand  ounces  of  gold.  In  a  most  extraordinary 
manner  the  vessel  was  driven  by  the  seas  into  a  great 
cavern  in  the  cliff  from  which  only  a  handful  of  her 
people  managed  to  escape.  They  lived  for  eighteen 
months  on  this  desert  island  before  being  taken  off. 
The  hulk  of  the  General  Grant  is  still  within  the  cave, 
but  the  undertow  and  the  great  combers  have  thus 
far  baffled  the  divers. 

Luzon.  One  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  Near  Ca- 
lumpit,  in  the  swamps  of  the  Rio  Grande,  the  Chinese 
Mandarin,  Chan  Lee  Suey,  buried  his  incalculable 
wealth  soon  after  the  British  captured  Manila  in 
1762.  His  jewels  were  dazzling,  and  a  string  of 
pearls,  bought  from  the  Sultan  of  Sulu,  was  said  to 
be  the  finest  in  the  Orient. 

Nightingale  Island.  Near  Tristan  da  Cunha. 
South  Atlantic.    One  chest  of  pirate's  silver  was 


HINTS  FOR  TREASURE  SEEKERS  423 

found  here  and  brought  to  the  United  States,  but 
much  more  is  said  to  remain  hidden. 

Tobermory  Bay.  Island  of  Mull.  Western  Scot- 
land. Wreck  of  the  galleon  Florencia  of  the  Span- 
ish Armada.  Said  to  have  contained  thirty  millions 
of  treasure.  Permission  to  investigate  must  be  ob- 
tained from  His  Grace,  the  Duke  of  Argyll. 

Vigo  Bay.  Coast  of  Spain.  Spanish  plate  fleet 
sunk  by  the  English  and  Dutch.  A  trifling  matter 
of  a  hundred  million  dollars  or  more  are  waiting  for 
the  right  man  to  come  along  and  fish  them  up. 
Treasure  seekers  had  better  first  consult  the  Span- 
ish Government  at  Madrid  in  order  to  avoid  misun- 
derstandings with  the  local  officials. 

East  River.  Manhattan  Island,  New  York. 
Wreck  of  the  British  frigate  Hussar  which  carried 
to  the  bottom,  in  1780,  more  than  two  and  a  half  mil- 
lion dollars  in  gold  consigned  to  the  paymasters  of 
the  army  and  naval  forces  that  were  fighting  the 
American  forces  of  George  Washington.  She  was 
sailing  for  Newport  and  struck  a  rock  nearly  oppo- 
site the  upper  end  of  Eandall's  Island,  sinking  one 
hundred  yards  from  shore. 

Oak  Island.  Nova  Scotia.  Near  Chester.  Un- 
mistakable remains  of  a  deep  shaft  sunk  by  pirates 
and  an  underground  connection  with  the  bay.  A 
company  is  now  digging,  and  will  probably  sell 
shares  at  a  reasonable  price.  Buying  shares  in  a 
treasure  company  is  less  fatiguing  than  handling  the 
pick  and  shovel  oneself. 

Isthmus  of  Panama.  Directions  somewhat  vague. 
Sir  Francis  Drake  left  part  of  the  loot  of  old  Pan- 
ama concealed  along  his  line  of  retreat,  but  none  of 
his  crew  was  considerate  enough  to  transmit  to  pos- 


424         THE  BOOK  OF  BURIED  TREASURE 

terity  a  chart  marked  with  the  proper  crosses  and 
bearings. 

Dollar  Cove.  Mount's  Bay,  Cornwall.  Wreck  of 
treasure  ship  Saint  Andrew,  belonging  to  the  king 
of  Portugal.  Driven  out  of  her  course  from  Flan- 
ders to  a  home  port  in  1526.  An  ancient  document 
written  by  one  Thomas  Porson,  an  Englishman  on 
board  states  that  "by  the  Grace  and  Mercy  of  God, 
the  greater  part  of  the  crew  got  safely  to  land, ' '  and 
that,  assisted  by  some  of  the  inhabitants,  they  also 
saved  part  of  the  cargo  including  blocks  of  silver 
bullion,  silver  vessels  and  plate,  precious  stones, 
brooches  and  chains  of  gold,  cloth  of  Arras,  tapes- 
try, satins,  velvets,  and  four  sets  of  armor  for  the 
king  of  Portugal.  According  to  Porson,  no  sooner 
had  these  treasures  been  carried  to  the  top  of  the 
cliffs  than  three  local  squires  with  sixty  armed  re- 
tainers attacked  the  shipwrecked  men  and  carried 
off  the  booty. 

Modern  treasure  seekers  disbelieve  this  document 
and  prefer  the  statement  of  one  of  the  squires  con- 
cerned, St.  Aubyn  by  name,  that  they  rode  to  the 
place  to  give  what  help  they  could,  but  the  cargo  of 
treasure  could  not  be  saved. 

Cape  Vidal.  Coast  of  Zululand.  Wreck  of  mys- 
terious sailing  vessel  Dorothea  said  to  have  had  a 
huge  fortune  in  gold  bricks  cemented  under  his  floor, 
stolen  gold  from  the  mines  of  the  Eand.  In  1900, 
May  21st,  an  item  in  the  Government  Estimates  of 
the  Legislative  Assembly  in  the  Natal  Parliament 
was  discussed  under  the  heading,  "Expenditure  in 
connection  with  buried  gold  at  Cape  Vidal,  search 
for  discovery,  £173  19s.  3d. "  "  Mr.  Evans  asked  if  a 
syndicate  had  been  formed  and  what  expectations 
the  Government  had  to  give.     (Hear,  hear.)     The 


HINTS  FOR  TREASURE  SEEKERS  425 

Prime  Minister  said  there  were  several  syndicates 
formed  to  raise  the  treasure.  The  government  had 
reason  to  believe  that  they  knew  where  the  treasure 
was  hidden,  and  started  an  expedition  on  their  own 
account.  But  unfortunately  they  had  not  been  able 
to  find  the  treasure.  Mr.  Evans:  The  Government 
was  in  for  a  bad  spec.  (Laughter.)  The  item 
passed." 

Space  is  given  to  the  foregoing  because  it  stamps 
with  official  authority  the  story  of  the  treasure  of 
Cape  Vidal.  When  a  government  goes  treasure 
hunting  there  must  be  something  in  it. 

Lake  Guatavita.  Near  Bogota.  Kepublic  of 
Colombia.  The  treasure  of  El  Dorado,  the  Gilded 
Man.  To  find  this  gold  involves  driving  a  tunnel 
through  the  side  of  a  mountain  and  draining  the 
lake.  This  is  such  a  formidable  undertaking  that  it 
will  not  appeal  to  the  average  treasure  seeker  unless, 
perchance,  he  might  pick  up  a  second  hand  tunnel 
somewhere  at  a  bargain  price.  Even  then,  trans- 
portation from  the  sea  coast  to  Bogota  is  so  difficult 
and  costly  that  it  would  hardly  be  practicable  to  saw 
the  tunnel  into  sections  and  have  it  carried  over  the 
mountains  on  mule-back. 


X 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


ULn 


APR  1  7  1995 

SRLF 
QUARTER  LO/Kn 

APR  1  7  fogs 


X 


]» 


^< 


w 


i» 


s 

/ 


- 


\ -_  / 


ft   THE  IIMARV  Of   ». 


ftjrtvwvaviNvs  » 

si  r\  1  r>  12 


•    V»«0*JV3 


3  1205  00842  8706 


I 


ft    THE  UMARY  Of    ft 
ll 


o    THE  UNIVERSITY    ft 
8 


mSm&JgS&J&m 


m 


o  or  CAin 
E 


'  FACILITY 


•  io  kvn 


»  or  California  « 


A     000  994  844 9" 

/     \ 


•  40  Asviran  »u  o 


ft    THE  UNIVERSITY    o 

8 


ys 


s 
I 

•  SANTA  &ARBARA  » 


B 


o    THE  UBRj 


B 


«   Or  CAltfORNlA    e 


w 


CO 


S^ 


•    *0  AWMIl  Ml   O 


9 


ViNVS  o 


3# 


e    AjtsajAiNft  3Hi    o 


•    VINHOJ 


«   THE  UBRARV  Of   9 
I 


o  VSV8SV9  VINVS  o 


•    WUKMTO  tO    • 


9 


/         \ 


5 

o    JOKJUAJNO  JHi    « 


3ft 


0 

/ 


